BJP Fields Employee Leader Er. Harikishore Tiwari from Agra Graduate Constituency, Teachers and Staff Celebrate

Lucknow . Teachers and government employees across Uttar Pradesh are in a celebratory mood after Er. Harikishore Tiwari, president of the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Karmchari Sanyukt Parishad, was declared the official candidate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Agra Graduate constituency.

As news of the ticket reached the Parishad office, thousands of employees and teachers gathered to give Tiwari a warm welcome. Office-bearers of the Parishad and its constituent unions, the Diploma Engineers Federation, and associations of secondary, primary and BTC teachers met him to offer congratulations and pledged to campaign and support him at every level. Tiwari shared his priorities with them.

Born in Etawah, Tiwari completed his B.Sc. there before earning a diploma in mechanical engineering from Hathras with honours, securing ninth position in the state in the Technical Board. He later passed M.A. in Economics with first division and began government service as a Junior Engineer in the Public Works Department.

His public life began early. He served as Hathras district chief of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad from 1978 to 1980, was elected general secretary at M.G. Polytechnic, Hathras, in 1983, and served as Etawah district president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 1984 to 1986.

From 1986, he rose through the Diploma Engineers Federation, from district president to regional president, and was elected unopposed as Kanpur region president for 22 years until 2008. That year he became state president of the PWD Diploma Engineers Association, and in 2017 was elected unopposed state president, a first in the association's history. He also served as Etawah secretary of the Parishad from 1993 to 1997.

Tiwari represented Uttar Pradesh at international programmes in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and travelled to several other countries. He also undertook the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in 2005. Between 1990 and 2005 he courted arrest several times and led hunger strikes of up to six days to secure promotions for employees.

He is known for social work including blood donation camps, a national cricket tournament for the disabled, blanket distribution and awards for meritorious students. His son Nikunj Tiwari and daughter-in-law serve as Majors in the Indian Army.

Tiwari assured well-wishers that he would use his organisational strength to carry BJP's programmes and schemes to lakhs of employees, teachers and citizens.