Former minister and a senior Congress leader Vasanthrao L Patil of Raibag died in Bangalore on Sunday. He was 90 years old.
Vasanthrao Patil was a Cabinet minister during the Devraj Urs government and also during Ramkrishna Hegde’s rule. He was known as the ‘Tiger of Raibag’ and nobody dared to contest against him in elections. He was the first MP from Chikkodi constituency, when it did not have a reservation for an SC candidate. He was also a minister in the Mumbai government.
He was the ‘political guru’ of several Congress leaders, including former union minister Shankaranand. Vasanthrao Patil was recently felicitated in Bangalore to mark 50 years of Vidhana Soudha. He is survived by three sons — Pratap, Amarsinh and Vivek Rao. The last rites will be performed on Monday.