Shivraj Vishwanath Patil (12 October 1935 – 12 December 2025) was an Indian politician. He was theMinister of Home Affairs of India, from 2004 to 2008 and 10thSpeaker of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996. Patil was Governor of the state ofPunjab and Administrator of theUnion Territory ofChandigarh from 2010 to 2015.[2] Previously, he served in theIndira Gandhi andRajiv Gandhi cabinets as Minister of Defence during the 1980s.
Patil resigned from the post of Home Minister on 30 November 2008, following widespread criticism raised after2008 Mumbai attacks, and took moral responsibility for the security lapse that led to the attacks.[3]
Shivraj Vishwanath Patil Chakurkar was born on 12 October 1935 in the village ofChakur in theLatur district (Marathwada region) of the thenprincely state ofHyderabad, nowMaharashtra, India. He attendedOsmania University,Hyderabad, earning a degree in Science and studied law atBombay University. During 1967–69, he was involved in local government (Latur Municipality).Keshavrao Sonawane and Manikrao Sonawane helped Shivaraj Patil to get his first break to stand from Latur Constituency.[4]
He belonged to thePanchamsaliLingayat community.[5] He married Vijaya Patil in June 1963, and had two children – a son and a daughter – with her.[6] He was also a follower ofSathya Sai Baba.
From 1972 to 1980, Patil was legislator ofLatur City of theMaharashtra Legislative Assembly for two terms of 1972 to 1978 and 1978 to 1980 during which time he held various positions such as Chairman of Public Undertakings Committee, Deputy Minister (Law & Judiciary, Irrigation, Protocol), Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and Speaker of the Assembly.
In 1980, Patil was elected to the7th Lok Sabha fromLatur constituency. By 1999, he had won seven successive Lok Sabha elections in 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, he lost toBharatiya Janata Party candidateRupatai Patil Nilangekar.
First inducted into theIndira Gandhi-led government as Minister of State for Defence (1980–82), he was given independent charge of the Commerce Ministry (1982–83), from where he was shifted to Science and Technology, Atomic Energy, Electronics, Space and Ocean Development (1983–84).During 1983–86, he was vice-president ofCSIR India. He also served on various committees including those on Defence, External Affairs, Finance, Salaries and Allowances of members of parliament.
In theRajiv Gandhi government, he was Minister for Personnel, Defence production and later held independent charge of Civil Aviation and Tourism.
Patil also held a number of important positions in the party afterSonia Gandhi took over the presidency of the party. He is largely known for introducing theOutstanding Parliamentarian Award, India in 1992. He was the chairman of the manifesto committee of the party during the 1999 Lok Sabha election.
As speaker of the Lok Sabha, he began or contributed to initiatives on information dissemination to members of the Parliament (through computerisation and modernisation), construction of the Parliament Library Building and the broadcast of Lok Sabha proceedings, including the live broadcast ofQuestion Hour of both houses of the parliament.
Between 1991 and 1995, he was a member/leader of Indian parliamentary delegations to various international parliamentary conferences.
He became Home Minister in 2004. A formerLok Sabha speaker, Shivraj Patil lost in the 2004 polls fromLatur inMaharashtra, but still landed the second most important position in the Union Cabinet—that of theHome Minister. He was elected to theRajya Sabha in July 2004. It is also said if not for losing the election he would have been the Prime Minister, and the reason he lost the election was because his opponent got the sympathy vote for losing a family member who was a mass leader. His tenure as home minister was marred by one debacle after another and he faced increasing calls for his resignation, eventually forcing it due to the mishandling in the events leading up to and after the2008 Mumbai attacks. Not to be forgotten also are the2006 Malegaon bombings, at a Muslim graveyard.[7]
United States AmbassadorDavid Mulford in anembassy cable described his removal after the Mumbai terrorist attack as inevitable and called him "inept" and "asleep on the watch".[8][9][10][11][12]
Patil was accused of not sending theCentral Reserve Police Force to Nandigram, even after repeated requests by the West Bengal government, to restore law and order in the area and the events resulted in police firing upon and killing men and women in Nandigram.
Patil's name was considered a likely candidate in the2007 presidential election. However, after the Left opposed his candidacy, Sonia Gandhi proposedPratibha Patil, Governor of Rajasthan, as the presidential candidate. Shivraj Patil was later considered a possible candidate for the post ofVice-President of India.
On 30 November 2008, just four days after the Bombay blasts, Patil resigned from his position ofHome Minister in Union Cabinet taking moral responsibility for the security lapse that led to the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
After 26/11, Shivraj Patil was made the Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator from 2010[13] to 2015.[14]
Patil has been criticized for his response to the2008 Mumbai attacks, as well as for not mentioning them in his 2014 autobiography.[15][16][17][18]
Patil died inLatur, Maharashtra, India on 12 December 2025, at the age of 90.[19][20]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). interstatecouncil.nic.in| Preceded by | Minister of Defence 15 January 1980 – 2 December 1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Speaker of Lok Sabha 1991–1996 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Home Minister of India 2004–2008 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Punjab &Administrator of Chandigarh January 2010 – January 2015 | Succeeded by |
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