Veerendra Patil Biography 
Veerendra Patil was an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Karnataka state twice. He was in this position from the year 1968 to 1971 and his second tenure was from 1989 to 1990. He was elected to the Karnataka state legislative assembly from the Chincholi constituency and in 1980 he was elected to Lok Sabha from Bagalkot constituency.
He was born on 1924 in a middle class family in Chincholi in Gulbarga district of Karnataka. He became the deputy minister for home in the government of S. Nijalingappa in the year 1957. Then he joined Hegde and remained with him for more than 20 years.
In the year 1980 he left the Janata party and joined the Congress party of Indira Gandhi. When Nijalingappa moved to the state politics, he preferred Patil as his successor and Veerendra Patil became the member of the cabinet of B. D. Jatti. He was competing with Jatti at that time.
His first tenure as the chief minister lasted for about 33 months and 10 days. He made all the assumptions that he was a dummy for his mentor Nijalingappa, false. During this time, the Cauvery water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu grew stronger. When Tamil Nadu objected the irrigation project of Karnataka, the Central Water Commission was appointed. Though this commission refused to clear them, he went ahead with the project.
He secured institutional finance to promote the Karnataka Power Corporation. He belonged to Lingayat family and so there were some charges of his favoring that particular community.
He lost his Rajya Sabha seat to Hegde in 1978. When his dream of becoming the chief minister was thwarted by Devaraj Urs, he moved back to the Indira Gandhi’s Congress. He won in the Bagalkot constituency in the Lok Sabha election and became the minister of Union Labor and Petroleum.
When there was a split in the Janata Party in 1989, he could get back to the position of Chief Minister of Karnataka. He had to face communal riots in October 1990. He was affected by a stroke and Rajiv Gandhi selected S. Bangarappa as the new Chief Minister of the state. He died on 14th March 1997. He was survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.
Published: N/A
Updated: November 06, 2011
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