NCP leader R R Patil passes away

The former Maharashtra home minister and deputy chief minister had been battling cancer

Maharashtra’s former deputy chief minister and home minister R R Patil, popularly known as Aaba by politicians and followers, today died of cancer. Fifty-seven-year-old Patil, who started his political career from the Sangli Zilla Parishad in 1979, entered the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in 1990 on a Congress ticket. Since then he won all five Assembly elections, including the 2014 one despite being ill.

In his death the Nationalist Congress Party, which ruled the state in alliance with the Congress, has lost a leader admired for a clean image and accessibility. He was among the senior state Congress leaders who had joined Sharad Pawar after the formation of the NCP in June 1999.

Known for his oratory, humour and timing, Patil as a legislator was combative on both the treasury and opposition benches. He came into the limelight during the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance rule between 1995 and 1999, when he took on the state government for its flip flop over the controversial Enron project, corruption cases against ministers, and for the government being controlled by former Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

Patil received the Best Legislator award and had friends in all political parties and social organisations. He used to be in demand for addressing election or public meetings. He was among four or five young and bright NCP leaders inducted into Vilasrao Deshmukh’s cabinet and was allotted rural development in 1999. He left a stamp on its functioning by implementing the Sant Gadge Baba Gram Swatcha Abhiyan. Subsequently, Patil became deputy chief minister and was given the home portfolio in 2004.

During his tenure as home minister, Patil took a bold decision to ban dance bars despite criticism from sections of society. He had to step down as home minister over remarks made in the aftermath of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack that ‘small incidents do happen in big cities’ triggered an outrage. Patil was re-inducted in 2009 and was allocated the home portfolio again. During his second stint he took a number of steps to tackle Naxal activities in the Gadchiroli and Chandrapur districts.