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In July 2024 Harish Dwivedi was appointed the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prabhari — state in-charge — for Assam. The role carries organisational responsibility for the party unit in the state, working alongside the state leadership.

The appointment came shortly after the conclusion of his second term as Member of the Lok Sabha for Basti, and marked a shift from a legislative role to a full-time organisational one in a different region of the country.

• Assam
• Party organisation
• 2024

Harish Dwivedi’s service as a Member of the Lok Sabha concluded on 4 June 2024, at the end of the 17th Lok Sabha. He had represented the Basti constituency continuously since 16 May 2014.

Across the two terms his recorded activity included 518 questions asked in the House — 328 during the 16th Lok Sabha and 190 during the 17th — recorded attendance of 86 per cent and 74 per cent respectively, and service on four parliamentary committees. He contested the Basti seat again in the 2024 general election and was not returned.

• Lok Sabha
• Basti
• 2024

Through the 17th Lok Sabha, Harish Dwivedi served as Chairperson of the Committee on Petitions. The committee is the formal mechanism by which an individual citizen or a group may petition the House directly on a grievance or on a matter of general public interest, and by which representations addressed to members are examined.

The committee seeks the position of the ministry or department concerned, may take evidence, and reports its findings and recommendations back to the House — placing both the grievance and the government’s response on the public record.

• Committee on Petitions
• Chairperson
• 17th Lok Sabha

In the 2019 general election Harish Dwivedi was returned from the Basti parliamentary constituency with a margin of 30,354 votes, or 2.88 per cent, defeating the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate. His second term ran from 23 May 2019 to 5 June 2024.

Basti is one of the eighty parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh and comprises five assembly segments — Harraiya, Kaptanganj, Rudhauli, Basti Sadar and Mahadewa — all within Basti district.

• General election
• Basti
• 2019

From 2018 to 2019 Harish Dwivedi served on the Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Finance. The committee examines the demands for grants, bills and long-term policy of the ministries responsible for finance, corporate affairs, and planning and statistics.

It is the committee through which the allocation side of every other policy area is ultimately scrutinised, including agricultural credit and rural expenditure.

• Standing Committee
• Finance
• 16th Lok Sabha

From 2016 to 2018 Harish Dwivedi served on the Standing Committee on Information Technology, whose remit covers communications, electronics and information technology, and information and broadcasting.

These are the policy areas that determine how far digital public services, banking correspondence and market information actually reach beyond district towns — a question of direct consequence for a rural constituency.

• Standing Committee
• Information Technology
• 16th Lok Sabha

Harish Dwivedi was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha from the Basti parliamentary constituency in the 2014 general election, defeating the Samajwadi Party candidate by 33,562 votes, or 3.20 per cent of votes polled. His term as Member of the Lok Sabha formally began on 16 May 2014.

During this term his recorded attendance was 86 per cent and he asked 328 questions in the House. He was appointed to the Standing Committee on Energy in the same year.

• General election
• Basti
• 2014

Harish Dwivedi joined the Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Energy in 2014. The committee examines the demands for grants, legislation and policy of the ministries responsible for power and for new and renewable energy.

For an agricultural constituency the subject is immediate rather than technical: dependable supply determines whether tube wells run through the irrigation season, whether cold storage near the field is viable, and whether a small workshop can work a full shift.

• Standing Committee
• Energy
• 16th Lok Sabha