Newsmaker: Behind ‘Modi, the untiring PM’ remarks, a state BJP chief never at a loss for words

In the state, the 62-year-old Patil is known to be Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s eyes and ears, and one prone to making loud statements. At the same time, he has largely remained in the shadow of former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis in the state BJP.

Patil’s family, with deep roots in the RSS, belongs to Kolhapur district, from where Shah’s in-laws hail. But their ties are said to go back even earlier, to the ABVP.

Patil’s adulation was meant to imply how hardworking the PM was, saying Modi works 22 hours a day and now “wants to devote 24 hours to the nation”.

The remarks brought Patil attention at a time when he has made the crucial Assembly by-elections for Kolhapur North seat, due on April 12, in his backyard, a prestige issue.

The bypolls were necessitated by the death of sitting Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav. The BJP has fielded Satyajeet Kadam.

Patil had been appointed Maharashtra BJP chief in 2019, three months ahead of the Assembly polls. The party wanted to project a Maratha leader from Western Maharashtra, having moved the then state chief and fellow Maratha from Marathwada, Raosaheb Danve, as Minister of State, Railways, at the Centre.

While Fadnavis remains the tallest figure of the BJP in the state, by virtue of the fact that all major decisions on elections or selection of candidates are taken by consensus, Patil wields clout.

Earlier, he served as Cabinet minister in the state heading the Public Works Department, and after Eknath Khadse’s resignation following charges of corruption in land deals, held the crucial Revenue portfolio.

With mentor Shah having his back, sitting MLA Medha Kulkarni had been dropped to accommodate Patil from the Kothrud Assembly seat in Pune in 2019. Patil won the seat.