C. R. Patil

Chandrakant Raghunath Patil (born 16 March 1955), better known as C. R. Patil, is an Indian Politician who is serving as the 2nd Minister of Jal Shakti since 2024. He is member of the current 18th Lok Sabha of India. Since 2020, he is also the President of BJP Gujarat State unit. He is the first non-Gujarati to hold this position. His name is also spelled C. R. Paatil at times. He is a three-time Member of Parliament elected from Navsari in Gujarat.

Early life and education
Patil was born in Pimpry Akaraut village in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra to Raghunath, a police constable, and Sarubai Patil on March 16, 1955. The family had moved to Gujarat in 1951. He received post-school technical training at ITI, Surat. Like his father, he also worked as a Police Constable from 1975 in Gujarat Police and served for 14 years. He joined the BJP in 1989. He started working for a Gujarati Daily named ‘Navgujarat Times’ in 1991 but delved into politics thereafter. He knows Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi and English languages.

Political journey
He started as the BJP Treasurer, Surat City and then became the BJP Vice President, Surat City. In 1998, he was appointed as the Chairman of Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited (GACL), a state PSU by then Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel.

His various positions held during his journey are as follows:


 * Advisory Committee, Chief Minister of Gujarat
 * Advisory Committee, Revenue Ministry, Government of Gujarat
 * BJP Parliamentary Board, Gujarat State
 * Chairman, Fund Samiti for Chhatrapati Shivaji Smarak Samiti, Surat
 * Chairman, Airport Advisory Committee
 * President for various trust and societies:
 * Shri Saraswati Education Society, Surat
 * Maharastrian Vikas Mandal, Surat
 * Renuka Mata Charitable Trust, Surat
 * Maratha Patil Samaj Mandal, Surat
 * South Gujarat Textile Processor Association, Surat
 * Vice-Chairman, Valsad Telecom District, Surat
 * Chairman, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (G.I.D.C.) (Government of Gujarat),
 * Chairman, Gujarat Alkalies & Chemicals Ltd. Baroda (GACL) (Government of Gujarat)
 * Monitoring and Advisory Committee, District Rural Development
 * Vice-Chairman, Indo Republic Korea Friendship Group
 * In-charge, 8 Municipal Wards during the Municipal election since 2005
 * Member, Standing Co-ordination Committee, Agriculture and Co-operation Department, Gujarat
 * Chairman, Monitoring & Advisory Committee, District Rural (Village) Development Agency, Navsari
 * Vice-Chairman, Monitoring & Advisory Committee, District Rural (Village) Development Agency, Surat
 * Prabhari, Surat District, Bharatiya Janata Party
 * Sah-Prabhari, Bihar Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party
 * Managing Director, Eye Witness news channel

Electoral expertise
His electoral performance is considered with high regards as it was highest margin victory in 2014 and 2019. In 2019, he won election with a record margin of 689,668 votes which was the second highest margin in electoral history. In 2014, he was elected by a record margin of 5,58,116 votes, the third highest across entire India, the third-highest winner in the Lok Sabha in the whole country.

Under his leadership, BJP won a seventh consecutive election with a record 156 of 182 seats, the most won by any political party in Gujarat's history. Still, it was less than his bold claim of resigning even if they won single seat less than 182 seats out of 182 seats.

Role as parliamentarian
In 2013, he became the first Indian Member of Parliament to obtain an ISO certification 9001: 2015 for quality management system in monitoring and administration of the government services for his constituency. This seems to be inspired from Chief Minister's Office, Gujarat which became the first CMO to obtain an ISO certification In January 2009.

He has been member of various Committees as a Parliamentarian listed as follows: Navsari became India's first 'smokeless' district with zero usage of firewood or kerosene. He has played a pivotal role in the development of Surat, including policy making for the textile and diamond industries, infrastructure development, or development of Surat airport into a fully functioning one with multiple flights giving air connectivity to the rest of India and initiation of International flights. His work at Chikhli village panchayat under the Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana is replicated in PM Modi's Varanasi constituency. During the second wave of COVID-19, Patil initiated Covid Care Centres across Gujarat which were set up by various BJP karyakartas.

Personal life
He is married to Smt. Ganga and has 4 children, one son and three daughters.