PUNE: Former Maharashtra chief minister Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar died here on Wednesday after a brief illness, family sources said.
Nilangekar, 89, died at a private hospital here.
He tested coronavirus positive in July but recovered and was discharged after testing negative.
Nilangekar, senior Congress leader from Latur in Marathwada region, was the state chief minister from June 1985 to March 1986.
He resigned from the post when the Bombay High Court passed strictures against him after fraud was alleged in the results of the MD examination in 1985 "at his behest" to help his daughter and her friend get through.
Nilangekar was tested positive for coronavirus in July and shifted to Pune for treatment. Doctors at the Pune hospital where he died said he suffered an acute chronic renal failure with cardiac arrest.
Nilangekar, a close associate former chief minister late Vasantdada Patil, became the chief minister after the latter resigned as CM in protest against Prabha Rau being appointed state Congress president without his knowledge.
At that time, Nilangekar was not a member of either House of the state legislature.
In 1991, he was named the state Congress president, a post he occupied for a year. In 2003, he became a revenue minister in the Sushilkumar Shinde-led state ministry.
In 2014, he was defeated by his grandson Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, who was the BJP candidate from the Nilanga Assembly seat.
Till then, Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar had been representing Nilanga seat since 1962.
Sambhaji became a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis- led state government.
Condoling Nilangekar's demise, state Congress president, and Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said in his death, the state has lost a leader with a vision for development and discipline.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said Nilangekar was a leader who participated in the freedom movement as well as the development of the state.
In his death, the state had lost a guiding link that connected two generations, Pawar added.