E-Paper
Dilip Walse Patil gets charge of Maharashtra home dept
A close confidant of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Walse Patil, 64, is known as a shrewd politician and a good administrator
In 2019, when the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was formed, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Dilip Walse Patil was a top contender for the home minister’s post. However, he preferred low-profile portfolios such as the excise and labour departments. Fifteen months on, the seven-term legislator from Ambegaon constituency in Pune district is the new home minister of the state.
A close confidant of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Walse Patil, 64, is known as a shrewd politician and a good administrator. In the past two decades, he handled the responsibilities as the minister for energy, finance, higher and technical education and excise. He was also the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly between 2009 and 2014, and shares cordial relations with leaders across the parties.
Though his father, Dattatray, was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) between 1967 and 1972, Walse Patil went to a district council school at his village Nirgudsar. He completed his Master of Law from a college in Mumbai and worked as Pawar’s personal assistant (PA), when the latter was Maharashtra’s chief minister for the second time in the late 1980s. Pawar, who was then a key Congress leader in Maharashtra, reluctantly gave Walse Patil a party ticket in 1990 from Ambegaon, considered to be a strong hold of Janata Dal, and was represented by stalwart Kisanrao Bankhele. Walse Patil was elected to the Assembly from the seat and never looked back.
“The decision to join as Pawar’s PA was his conscious move, as he wanted to enter politics and watch his leader very closely heading the state. His father and Pawar were friends for years, after being elected to the Assembly for the first time together in 1967. His position helped him bag the ticket from a relatively difficult constituency, but also cultivated him as a shrewd politician, and he displayed the acumen as minister while handling very important departments including energy, higher and technical education and even as the Assembly Speaker,” said an NCP leader, who has closely worked with Walse Patil.
In 2019, ahead of MVA’s formation, Walse Patil was asked to head the home department by his party chief, but he had reportedly refused the post. Leaders from MVA government, however, feel that it is the right choice made at the right time by the party leadership.
“He is a politician who likes to speak less. He commanded respect in the departments he headed and had courage to take tough decisions. He is taking the reins of the home department at the time when the police force is infested with factionalism and groupism. He will ensure that the police force falls in line within no time,” said political analyst Pratap Asbe.
Walse Patil was one of the first Congress legislators to join NCP, formed by Pawar in May 1999. In his third term as a legislator, he was made the higher and technical education minister in the alliance government formed by the Congress and NCP in 1999. In 2002, he was given the additional charge of energy department, while in 2004 the medical education was added to his portfolio, which he continued to handle till December 2008. He was the finance minister for about 11 months till October 2009.
“The energy department came to him when the state was reeling under load shedding because of power shortage. He successfully chalked out a plan to set up new generation projects with 6,000-MW (megawatts) capacity and strengthening of power infrastructure. The Maharashtra State Electricity Board was restructured into four companies in 2005 under his leadership. Similarly, the formation of the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation, which played a key role in computer literacy in the state, was founded under his leadership.
Will he be able to clear the mess in home department which has now put the MVA government in trouble? Only time will tell.
