Mumbai: Senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil died on Friday (December 12) at his residence in Maharashtra's Latur. He was 91 years old. The former Union Home Minister breathed his last at around 6:30 am.
He was also a former Speaker of the Lok Sabha and held key portfolios in the Union Cabinet during the UPA government. Patil had won the Latur Lok Sabha seat seven times.
Visuals From Outside Shivraj Patil's Home In Latur:
Notably, he was the Union Home Minister at the time of the 26/11 Mumbai attack. However, he resigned after facing criticism following the attack.
He was Governor of the state of Punjab and Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh from 2010 to 2015.
Patil was born on October 12, 1935, in the Chakur village of Latur. He attended Osmania University, Hyderabad, earning a degree in science and studied law at Bombay University during 1967–69.
Patil was a legislator of Latur City of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for two terms from 1972 to 1978 and 1978 to 1980.
In 1980, he was first elected to the seventh Lok Sabha from the Latur constituency. The senior Congress leader won seven successive Lok Sabha elections in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. However, in 2004, he lost the polls to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Rupatai Patil Nilangekar.
He served as the Union Home Minister from 2004 to 2008 in the first Congress-led UPA government. He also served as a minister in the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi's cabinets.
