Chandrakant Raghunath Patil (born 16 March 1955), better known as C. R. Patil, is an Indian Politician who is serving as the 2nd Minister of Jal Shakti since 2024. He is member of the current

18th Lok Sabha The 18th Lok Sabha was formed after general elections were held in India over seven phases from 19 April to 1 June 2024, to elect all members from 543 constituencies of the Lok Sabha. The votes were counted, and the results were declared on 4 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Since 2020, he is also the President of BJP Gujarat State unit. He is the first non-Gujarati to hold this position. His name is also spelled C. R. Paatil at times. He is a four-time Member of Parliament elected from

Navsari Navsari is the ninth biggest city in the state of Gujarat in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Navsari District. Navsari is between Surat and Mumbai. It is a twin city of Surat, 37 km to the north. At the 2011 Census of Ind ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

Early life and education

Patil was born in Pimpry Akaraut village in

Jalgaon Jalgaon () is a city in the state of Maharashtra, India. The city is located in North Maharashtra in the subregion of Khandesh, and serves as the administrative headquarters of its namesake district, the Jalgaon district. In the subregion of ...

district, Maharashtra to Raghunath, a police constable, and Sarubai Patil on 16 March 1955. The family had moved to Gujarat in 1953. He received post-school technical training at ITI,

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

. Like his father, he also worked as a Police Constable from 1975 in

Gujarat Police The ' is the law enforcement agency for the state of Gujarat in India. The Gujarat Police has its headquarters in Gandhinagar, the state capital, and Ahmedabad. The Gujarat Police Department came into existence after Gujarat's separation fr ...

and served for 14 years. He joined the BJP in 1989. He started working for a Gujarati Daily named ‘Navgujarat Times’ in 1991 but delved into politics thereafter. He knows Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi and English languages.

Political journey

He started as the BJP Treasurer, Surat City and then became the BJP Vice President, Surat City. In 1998, he was appointed as the Chairman of

Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (GACL) is an Indian chemical substance manufacturing company, promoted by the Government of Gujarat. Its manufacturing facilities are located at Dahej and Vadodara in Gujarat. The company manufactures chemic ...

(GACL), a state PSU by then Chief Minister

Keshubhai Patel Keshubhai Patel (24 July 192829 October 2020) was an Indian politician who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 1995 and again from 1998 to 2001. He was a six-time member of Gujarat Legislative Assembly. He was a member of RSS since 1940s, of ...

. His various positions held during his journey are as follows: * Advisory Committee, Chief Minister of Gujarat * Advisory Committee, Revenue Ministry, Government of Gujarat * BJP Parliamentary Board, Gujarat State

Electoral expertise

His electoral performance is considered with high regards as it was highest margin victory in 2014 and 2019. In 2019, he won election with a record margin of votes which was the second highest margin in electoral history. In 2014, he was elected by a record margin of 5,58,116 votes, the third highest across entire India, the third-highest winner in the Lok Sabha in the whole country. Under his leadership, BJP won a seventh consecutive election with a record 156 of 182 seats, the most won by any political party in Gujarat's history. Still, it was less than his bold claim of resigning even if they won single seat less than 182 seats out of 182 seats.

Role as parliamentarian

In 2013, he became the first Indian Member of Parliament to obtain an ISO certification 9001: 2015 for quality management system in monitoring and administration of the government services for his constituency. This seems to be inspired from Chief Minister's Office, Gujarat which became the first CMO to obtain an ISO certification In January 2009. He has been member of various Committees as a Parliamentarian listed as follows: Navsari became India's first 'smokeless' district with zero usage of firewood or kerosene. He has played a pivotal role in the development of Surat, including policy making for the textile and diamond industries, infrastructure development, or development of Surat airport into a fully functioning one with multiple flights giving air connectivity to the rest of India and initiation of International flights. His work at Chikhli village panchayat under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is replicated in PM Modi's Varanasi constituency. During the second wave of COVID-19, Patil initiated Covid Care Centres across Gujarat which were set up by various BJP karyakartas.

Personal life

He is married to Smt. Ganga and has 4 children, one son and three daughters.

References