MUMBAI: Dilip Walse Patil (65), a trusted aide of NCP president Sharad Pawar, is set to be the new state home minister. Currently, Walse Patil is minister for excise and labour. The biggest challenge for him will be to end the groupism among IPS officers and set the house in order.
When the MVA government was being formed, Walse Patil, along with Jayant Patil, was front-runner for the home portfolio, and Anil Deshmukh was not in the zone of consideration. But Walse Patil then declined to accept the home department on health grounds, while Jayant Patil too had refused to accept the job, saying he had been home minister earlier and would like to take up a new department. Later, Deshmukh’s name was finalized as Pawar felt he would help NCP to expand its wings in Vidarbha. Pawar had had a discussion with Deshmukh on challenges in the home department, and when the latter agreed, the responsibility was entrusted on him.
Walse Patil, who began his political career as political assistant to Sharad Pawar, was first elected to the legislative assembly as a Congress nominee in 1990 from Ambegaon in Pune district. He has been elected to the assembly for six consecutive terms. In 1999, he joined NCP then set up by Pawar. Known as an orator, Walse Patil was cabinet member during Cong-NCP rule from 1999 to 2009. He held key portfolios including medical education, higher and technical education, finance planning and energy. A product of Government Law College, Mumbai, Walse Patil was speaker of the legislative assembly from November 2009 to November 2014.