Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra's former home minister RR Patil (57) passed away after a brief illness in Mumbai on Monday. Patil, known mainly for his initiatives against Mumbai's dance bars and liquor joints, was popular among the NCP cadre and was known more by his nick name `Aaba'. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and BJP president Amit Shah paid rich tributes to the departed leader and described him a popular representative of the people.
Patil was born in Tasgaon village of Sangli district in sugarcane-rich western Maharashtra. He got a law degree from a Sangli college and joined local politics as a Congressman in 1977. He was elected to the local district council in 1979 and competed two terms there. In 1990, he became a close confidant of Sharad Pawar who was in the Congress. Patil was given an assembly ticket after the death of Congress leader Vasantdada Patil who dominated the sugar belt in the 1970s and 1980s. Pawar cultivated Patil as his close confidant and a member of the assembly from Tasgaon during the 1990s. During the Shiv Sena-BJP regime of 1995-1999, Patil turned out to be the most aggressive opposition member in the assembly and exposed many scams. In 1999, as Sharad Pawar former NCP, Patil left the Congress and joined him. Patil was made home minister in the Congress-NCP government which first came to power in the state in 1999.
Patil also held other portfolios and was known as a forthright leader and an able administrator. As rural development minister, he launched Sant Gadgebaba Swachhata Abhiyan which was the original version of the BJP's current Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan. He achieved good results as rural development minister. Patil also served as NCP's state president during the 2004 assembly polls. Patil was given the home portfolio again by Pawar when NCP returned to power in 2004. Patil's controversial statement after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, which he claimed to be a misquote, cost him the home portfolio in 2008, but he was brought back by Pawar as home minister within six months.
It was Patil's decision about banning Mumbai's dance bars that gave him national fame. Patil had brought a private member bill on the subject in the state assembly earlier as he felt strongly that middle class young men were squandering money in the bars and there was no control on the activities in the bars which often doubled up as pick-up joints for prostitutes in Mumbai. His decision to ban dance bars was challenged by the bar owners in court and the state went to the Supreme Court in this matter and also proposed changes in law to continue the ban.
Patil will be remembered as the most accessible home minister of the state and took pride in telling his friends how he did not help even his real brother who was a cop for his transfer. The NCP has announced that Patil's funeral will take place in his home town on Tuesday.
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