India's first woman president will be completing 50 years in public life this year and is contemplating to tell her story in a book, Rashtrapati Bhawan sources said.
In 1962, young Patil had become for the first time a Congress MLA from Jalgaon city constituency of Jalgaon district of Maharashtra.
After her speech at a Kshatriya Mahasabha convention earlier at Chalisgaon, she was noticed by the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Y B Chavan who was quick to give her the Congress ticket in the Assembly polls.
Subsequently, she was continuously elected four times as MLA from the Edlabad (Muktai Nagar) constituency till 1985.
Thereafter, she served as a MP in the Rajya Sabha from 1985 to 1990 and was later elected as a Member of Parliament to the 10th Lok Sabha in the 1991 General Elections from the Amravati constituency.
She enjoys the unique distinction of not having lost a single election she contested.
While in college, she took active part in sports, excelled in table tennis and won several shields at various Inter-collegiate tournaments.