Dilip Walse Patil

Some Lesser Known Facts About Dilip Walse Patil

• Dilip Walse Patil is an Indian politician affiliated with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Dilip replaced Anil Deshmukh as the Home Minister of Maharashtra in April 2021 after the latter resigned from Home Minister’s post following corruption charges levied against him. The seven-time MLA from the Ambegaon constituency has long experience in the politics of Maharashtra.

• Patil is known to be a close aide of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. After completing his formal studies, Diliphad worked as a personal secretary to chief Sharad Pawar for many years until he entered politics. At that time, Sharad Pawar was a prominent member of the Indian National Congress (INC).

  

• Dilip’s father, Dattatray Gavindrao Walse Patil, was an INC politician who served as an MLA of the Ambegaon constituency from 1967 to 1972. Also, Dattatray was a close friend of Sharad Pawar and reportedly was the one to put his son under Sharad Pawar as his political assistant.

• After working closely under Sharad Pawar for several years, Dilip entered the electoral politics by successfully contesting the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election from the Ambegaon constituency in 1990. Since then, no other candidate has been able to defeat him from Ambegaon, and the constituency is seen as the bastion of Dilip.

  

• Dilip Walse Patil served as the president of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Limited (NFCSF) before resigning from the position in December 2020.

• It is said that Patil was the prime contender for heading the Department of Home Affairs during the formation of the Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in 2019; however, he had declined the offer to take the chair of the home ministry owing to his health condition. Patil has been a diabetic and heart patient.

• Over the years, while serving as the MLA of Ambegaon, Patil has primely focused on improving the educational and medical facilities in his constituency. He has played a vital role in setting up premier educational institutions in his area.

• As per Patil’s latest election affidavit, he has one pending criminal case of defamation against him filed in the Bombay High Court in 2015.