Shivraj Patil

Shivraj Vishwanath Patil Chakurkar was born on 12 October 1935 in the village of Chakur in the Latur district (Marathwada region) of the then princely state of Hyderabad, now Maharashtra, India. He attended Osmania University, Hyderabad, earning a degree in Science and studied law at Bombay University. During 1967–69, he was involved in local government (Latur Municipality). Keshavrao Sonawane and Manikrao Sonawane helped Shivaraj Patil to get his first break to stand from Latur Constituency.^[4]

He belonged to the Panchamsali Lingayat community.^[5] He married Vijaya Patil in June 1963, and had two children – a son and a daughter – with her.^[6] He was also a follower of Sathya Sai Baba.

From 1972 to 1980, Patil was legislator of Latur City of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for two terms of 1972 to 1978 and 1978 to 1980 during which time he held various positions such as Chairman of Public Undertakings Committee, Deputy Minister (Law & Judiciary, Irrigation, Protocol), Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and Speaker of the Assembly.

In 1980, Patil was elected to the 7th Lok Sabha from Latur constituency. By 1999, he had won seven successive Lok Sabha elections in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, he lost to Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rupatai Patil Nilangekar.

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

First inducted into the Indira Gandhi-led government as Minister of State for Defence (1980–82), he was given independent charge of the Commerce Ministry (1982–83), from where he was shifted to Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, Electronics, Space and Ocean Development (1983–84). During 1983–86, he was vice-president of CSIR India. He also served on various committees including those on Defence, External Affairs, Finance, Salaries and Allowances of members of parliament.

In the Rajiv Gandhi government, he was Minister for Personnel, Defence production and later held independent charge of Civil Aviation and Tourism.

Patil also held a number of important positions in the party after Sonia Gandhi took over the presidency of the party. He is largely known for introducing the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award, India in 1992. He was the chairman of the manifesto committee of the party during the 1999 Lok Sabha election.

As speaker of the Lok Sabha, he began or contributed to initiatives on information dissemination to members of the Parliament (through computerisation and modernisation), construction of the Parliament Library Building and the broadcast of Lok Sabha proceedings, including the live broadcast of Question Hour of both houses of the parliament.

Between 1991 and 1995, he was a member/leader of Indian parliamentary delegations to various international parliamentary conferences.

He became Home Minister in 2004. A former Lok Sabha speaker, Shivraj Patil lost in the 2004 polls from Latur in Maharashtra, but still landed the second most important position in the Union Cabinet—that of the Home Minister. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in July 2004. It is also said if not for losing the election he would have been the Prime Minister, and the reason he lost the election was because his opponent got the sympathy vote for losing a family member who was a mass leader. His tenure as home minister was marred by one debacle after another and he faced increasing calls for his resignation, eventually forcing it due to the mishandling in the events leading up to and after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Not to be forgotten also are the 2006 Malegaon bombings, at a Muslim graveyard.^[7]

United States Ambassador David Mulford in an embassy cable described his removal after the Mumbai terrorist attack as inevitable and called him "inept" and "asleep on the watch".^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Patil was accused of not sending the Central Reserve Police Force to Nandigram, even after repeated requests by the West Bengal government, to restore law and order in the area and the events resulted in police firing upon and killing men and women in Nandigram.

Patil's name was considered a likely candidate in the 2007 presidential election. However, after the Left opposed his candidacy, Sonia Gandhi proposed Pratibha Patil, Governor of Rajasthan, as the presidential candidate. Shivraj Patil was later considered a possible candidate for the post of Vice-President of India.

On 30 November 2008, just four days after the Bombay blasts, Patil resigned from his position of Home Minister in Union Cabinet taking moral responsibility for the security lapse that led to the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

After 26/11, Shivraj Patil was made the Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator from 2010^[13] to 2015.^[14]

Patil has been criticized for his response to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, as well as for not mentioning them in his 2014 autobiography.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Patil died in Latur, Maharashtra, India on 12 December 2025, at the age of 90.^[19][20]