Shalini Patil

Shalini Patil is the widow of Former Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vasantdada Patil. Mrs. Patil, more popularly known as Shalinitai, was also an important politician in her own right and held ministerial positions in the Congress party Governments of Maharashtra during the 1980s.

Early Life and Politics

Shalini was born in 1931 in a relatively poor family. Her father believed in female education. Shalini married Shyamrao Jadhav in the 1950s. She had four children with him and earned a law degree whilst married to him. Shalini entered politics when her children were young. Her first public position was as a member on Satara Zilla Parishad ( County Council). Later she was appointed as president of the women's wing of the MPCC (Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee) Shyamrao died in 1964 and shortly after his death, Shalini married Vasantdada Patil.

Political career

She held ministerial positions in the Congress party Governments of Maharashtra during the 1980s. In 1981, she was instrumental in getting the then chief minister A. R. Antulay to resign. Shalinitai became active in Maharashtra politics after marrying Vasantdada Patil. She represented Sangli constituency in the Indian parliament (Lok Sabha) during a period in the 1980s.She has represented the constituency of Koregaon, Satara in the Maharashtra state legislative assembly, the (Vidhan Sabha) from 1999 to 2009. Prior to that she unsuccessfully contested the seat in 1990 and 1995 for the Janata dal and as an independent respectively.

During the 1970s, she founded a charity called Rajmata Jijau Pratishthan to raise funds for hospitals for the poor and women related activities. The charity was in the news for controversial granting of or purchase of land by the government for the charity. Mrs. Patil was well known for speaking her mind, particularly about rights for the Maratha community. During her career, she has campaigned for more seats for women in elected bodies. She has also criticized the Indian Central Government's move to extend 27.5 per cent reservation to OBCs in the central academic institutes such as IITs and IIMs. Since her then party, the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar supported this policy, Shalinitai was expelled from that party in 2006. In 2009, she launched a new party called Krantisena Maharashtra. The party did not attract much support and soon Shalinitai joined the Congress party.