@the_news_21
Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has hand-picked his most trusted aide Dilip Walse-Patil to be entrusted with the additional charge of Home Minister, following the unceremonious exit of his predecessor Anil Deshmukh late on Monday evening.
Dilip Walse-Patil has been holding the charge of Excise and Labour Ministry in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. He has been chosen over and above top contenders like Jayant Patil and former Home minister Chhagan Bhujbal.
The 64-year-old Dilip Walse-Patil from Ambegaon in Pune district has had a long chequered political career. He is a six-term member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing the Ambegaon assembly constituency.
His rendezvous with politics began after he became Personal Assistant to NCP chief Sharad Pawar prior to 1990. Since then, he has been considered as the close-confidant of the Pawar family. Ever since he defeated his rival Kisanrao Bankhele in the 1990 assembly elections, Walse-Patil has wielded commanding hold on his assembly constituency.
During the previous Congress-NCP led Democratic Front (DF) led government Dilip Walse-Patil held many portfolios of Finance, Energy, Higher and Technical Education between 1999 to 2009. Between November 2009 to November 2014, Dilip Walse-Patil was the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. Currently he also holds the charge of president of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd (NFCF).
Dilip Walse-Patil has been credited with some landmark decisions like effecting changes in the admission process to medical college seats making the process more transparent, simplifying the approval process for Engineering colleges. The setting up of the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) is also credited to Dilip Walse-Patil. It was during his tenure the trifurcation of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) into separate entities of generation, transmission and electricity distribution companies took place in May 2005.
