Former Home Minister and Lok Sabha Speaker Shivraj Patil passes away at the age of 90

Latur. Senior Congress leader and former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil passed away in Latur on Friday at the age of 90. Patil breathed his last at around 6:30 am at his home in Latur, where he was under home observation due to a prolonged illness. Shivraj Patil held several important positions during his long political career, including Speaker of the Lok Sabha and several key positions in the Union Cabinet. Patil won the Latur Lok Sabha seat seven times.

His passing has brought an atmosphere of mourning throughout Maharashtra and national politics, as Patil was known as a calm, composed, and extremely hardworking leader in Indian politics.

Shivraj Patil was born on October 12, 1935, in Chakur, Latur district. After completing his studies, he first practiced Ayurveda and then studied law at Mumbai University. His political journey began in 1967 when he took up work at the Latur Municipality. This beginning later became the foundation of a long-standing political career.

How was his political journey…
In 1980, he first became a Member of Parliament from the Latur Lok Sabha seat and subsequently won seven consecutive terms from the same seat, securing his place in Parliament. This achievement places him among Maharashtra’s most influential leaders. In the governments of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, he held the positions of Minister of State for important departments such as Defense, Commerce, Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, Electronics, and Space.

Shivraj Patil served as Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996. During his tenure, he accelerated the modernization of the Lok Sabha, computerization, live broadcasting of proceedings, and the construction of a new library building. This period is considered a crucial period of technological and administrative change in the Indian Parliament.

Despite losing the 2004 election, he was appointed Home Minister at the Centre. But after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, he resigned, taking moral responsibility. He was later appointed Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh, where he served from 2010 to 2015.