Praful Patel

Praful Patel Biography

Praful Patel is a prominent politician and businessman from West Bengal. He belongs to Nationalist Congress Party. His political career began in the 1980s, and since then he has served as a parliamentarian and cabinet minister multiple times. He was the Civil Aviation Minister in 2004. Currently he serves as a Rajya Sabha member for Maharashtra. Also a Sports administrator, he currently serves as the President of All India Football Federation since 2012 and Vice President of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) since 2015. His family runs CeeJay group, a large tobacco conglomerate in India.

Praful Manoharbhai Patel was born in Kolkata on 17 February 1957 into a political family. His father Manoharbhai Patel was a prominent Congress leader. Following his father’s footsteps he too reached politics. He completed Commerce degree from the University of Bombay and later married a businessman’s daughter, Varsha Patel. Started his active career in politics in 1980s, he became president of the Municipal Council, Gondia in 1985. He got elected to Lok Sabha in 1991 as a congress candidate, thus beginning his active participation in national level politics. He also served as Consultative Committee member Ministry of Environment and Forests during his first tenure as MP.

He got elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections. He has been a committee member of Home Affairs, Finance and Civil aviation during this period. Later he got elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2000 and was re-elected in 2006 and 2014 too. He became a fourth term MP in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He served as Cabinet Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises during this term. In 2005 he received CAPA Aviation Minister of the year award.

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Updated: June 19, 2016