Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil passed away at his home following a long illness. He was 84 years old.
Vikhe-Patil is survived by a wife, two daughters and three sons — one of them is the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra, Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.
Vikhe-Patil breathed his last at his home in Loni-Pravara on Friday evening.
He was one of the pioneers of Maharashtra’s cooperative movement. He also launched Asia’s first cooperative sugar factory at Loni, in his home district Ahmednagar. He represented the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency for eight terms.
Though he was a staunch Congressman, Vikhe-Patil shifted his allegiance to Shiv Sena for brief period during the government of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. During this time, he initially served as the Minister of State for Finance, and later as the Union Minister for Heavy Industries.
The Governor of Maharashtra C. H. Vidyasagar Rao expressed grief over Vikhe-Patil’s demise.
In a letter to Mr. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, the Governor said, “Shri Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil was a towering leader in the cooperation movement in Maharashtra. His knowledge of agriculture, irrigation and rural development was remarkable. In his demise, Maharashtra has lost a visionary leader and a great human being.”
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, in his condolence message, said that Vikhe-Patil was a visionary when it came to setting up a model of rural development. “His knowledge in cooperation, irrigation and agriculture was extra ordinary. He used it to set up a number of people oriented projects. He was someone who knew the vein of rural transformation,” Mr. Fadnavis said.
