Chandrakant Raghunath Patil\, Lok Sabha member from Navsari new Gujarat BJP Chief

Gandhinagar: Chandrakant Raghunath Patil, Lok Sabha member from Navsari, has become the new president of the BJP’s Gujarat unit after his surprise appointment by party chief JP Nadda.

The first non-Gujarati to be appointed to the post, the Jalgaon-born CR Patil, as he is popularly known, assumes charge at a critical time when the Congress has made firebrand youth leader Hardik Patel its working president in the state.

“This is a very typical style of Narendra Modi,” said a BJP functionary, who did not wish to be identified. “While the Congress was going all out to bring the focus on community and caste based politics by appointing Hardik Patel, with the appointment of a Maratha as the Gujarat BJP president, Modiji sent out a message that will ring beyond the state on one hand and would unsettle the Congress’s game on the other.”

Patil has been known for being one of the most effective backroom boys of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has been entrusted with several important responsibilities across electorally crucial UP and Bihar since 2014, including being made in-charge of the PM’s constituency Varanasi and also being involved in cleaning up the ghats of the Ganga in Varanasi.

Known for his aggressive working style, Patil had started his career as a police constable in Surat in 1975 and soon got embroiled in allegations regarding his links with illicit liquor trade, and was subsequently suspended from the force. He joined the BJP in 1990 and was said to be close to former MP and party heavyweight Kashiram Rana.