Gulab Raghunath Pati, a Shiv Sena politician and the current Water supply and Sanitation minister of Maharashtra state was born on June 5, 1966, in Paldhi, Jalgaon District, Maharashtra. And, on this day in 2023, take a moment to know more about this politician’s life and career and his contributions to Maharashtra’s development, apart from the massive corruption allegations levelled against him.
All you need to know about Gulab Raghunath Patil:
Born in 1966, he began his political journey in 1999 when he was first elected to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from Erandol and re-elected in 2004.
In 2009, he became Shiv Sena’s Deputy Leader and the Minister of State for Co-operation in Maharashtra State Government in 2016.
In 2019 he was elected in the 14th Legislative Assembly and on 30 December 2019, he was appointed as Minister of Water Supply and Sanitation in the Uddhav Thackeray cabinet and also served as a Guardian Minister of Jalgaon.
In 2022 Gulab Patil resigned from the minister post in the Uddhav Thackeray cabinet, left Shiv Sena and joined rebel leader Eknath Shinde during the political crisis. Shinde with his more than 40 MLAs demanded a break of alliance from the NCP and Congress and demanded Uddhav Thackeray to form a government with the BJP. He currently serves in the Eknath Shinde cabinet as the Minister of Water supply and Sanitation
His tenure as MLA and a minister is riddled with corruption scams and allegations. In April 2023, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP and executive editor of party mouthpiece Saamana Sanjay Raut alleged that Maharashtra Water Supply and Sanitation Minister Gulab Patil was involved in a scam of Rs 400 crore during the Covid-19 crisis.
The minister, however, refuted the claims saying that he too has papers which show that only Rs 81 crore of the total allocation of under Rs 200 crore was spent in the past three years in the district.
Apart from these, he has also been in the news for many derogatory comments, particularly against Hema Malini where he compared the roads in Jalgaon to her cheeks.
