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Friday, Jun 15, 2007
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She stood by Congress through thick and thin

Mumbai bureau

Indira Gandhi wanted to make Pratibha Maharashtra CM, but the idea was dropped

Mumbai: The lady who could be India's first woman President was a Congress loyalist who kept the party's flag flying in the difficult post-Emergency years when it briefly lost power in Maharashtra and again in the 1980s when she was the Pradesh Congress Committee president.

After the 1978 split in the Maharashtra Congress, when Sharad Pawar left the party to form the PDF Government, Pratibha Patil functioned as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly (1979-80). That was a bleak time for the Congress, but her resolute loyalty won her the respect and support of Indira Gandhi. So much so, she even thought of making Ms. Patil Chief Minister when the party returned to power in 1980. But opposition within the Congress, partly from strongman Vasantdada Patil, killed that idea.

In the late 1980s, with the return of Mr. Pawar to the Congress and Chief Ministership, Rajiv Gandhi appointed Ms. Patil PCC president. This was seen as a move to counter Mr. Pawar's influence.

The era saw clashes between the two, including a public standoff at a party executive meeting in Aurangabad, widely reported at the time. Checkmated in the State by Mr. Pawar, Ms. Patil went on to become the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha (1986-88), directly picked for the post by the Congress high command.

In between, she held several portfolios at the State level, becoming Cabinet Minister for the first time in 1972 (Social Welfare) and for the last time in 1983-85 as Civil Supplies and Social Welfare Minister. She was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991.

Thereafter, her political star dimmed, till 2004 when she was appointed Rajasthan Governor. Fittingly, it was again a Gandhi who announced that she would be the United Progressive Alliance's candidate for President.

Ms. Patil, who hails from Jalgaon, has been one of the seniormost women members of the AICC. Her husband, Devisingh Shekhawat, once headed the municipality of Amravati town in the Vidharbha and is counted amongst Maharashtra's education barons.

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