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

    Synopsis

    Patil has been known for being one of the most effective backroom boys of PM 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.

    CR-PAtil-bccl
    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.
    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 Uttar Pradesh 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. While he gradually got drawn to the then party general secretary Narendra Modi, he also got entangled in several allegations of bank loan default and other payment defaults and was arrested several times.

    According to people aware of the matter, it was the handiwork of Patil that led to the front page advertisement in newspapers in Patna in June 2010, during the BJP’s national executive featuring Modi and the JD (U)’s Nitish Kumar, which prompted Kumar to cancelling the dinner for the top brass of the BJP that he was to host.

    However, Patil got close to the then chief minister Modi ahead of the 2007 Gujarat election and was elected from Navsari in 2009 Lok Sabha election and re-elected in 2014 and 2019. During the recent lockdown period, Patil played an important role in transporting migrant labourers from southern Gujarat.

    Observers said while the appointment of Hardik Patel as the working president of Gujarat Congress may help the opposition party galvanise support from the community, Patil’s appointment as the state president of the ruling BJP signifies the party’s strategy of taking the aggressive youth leader head on without giving any quarter.



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