Dilip Walse-Patil ({{lang-mr|दिलीप वळसे-पाटील}}) is an Indian politician, from Ambegaon, Maharashtra, and a five-time Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. He is currently serving his sixth term as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly after winning the 2014 polls. He is the former Speaker of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 11 November 2009 till November 2014.^[1] He formerly headed the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Energy Ministry, Higher and Technical Education Ministry, and Medical Education Ministry, all as a Cabinet Minister from 1999-2009.

He is currently serving as the President of National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Limited (NFCSF).

Career

A member of the Nationalist Congress Party, Walse-Patil is known to be a close associate of party President Mr. Sharad Pawar, the former Agriculture Minister in the central cabinet. Walse-Patil earlier headed the ministry of Finance and Planning, Energy, Higher and Technical Education, and Medical Education for the Government of Maharashtra.

With his father being an active politician, leadership has been instilled in him since childhood. He learnt his early lessons in active politics as a PA to Sharad Pawar, the Maratha strongman and still is one of Pawar's highly trusted lieutenants. He took on Kisanrao Bankhele in Ambegaon in 1990 to become an MLA for the first time and is currently serving the people of Maharashtra for a sixth consecutive term.

Apart from his immense contribution to the energy sector in Maharashtra, Walse Patil has made significant contributions to education in Maharashtra. He has implemented some vital changes to make the admission procedure for medical seats, more transparent. His initiative in encouraging the setup of new engineering colleges and in their smooth approval process, has created an atmosphere conducive to education. Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation (MKCL) is his creation, which has more than 5000 MSCIT centers all over Maharashtra. He played keyrole in the establishment of Government College of Engineering as well as Polytechnic and engineering in 2009 at Avsari (K).

  before=Babasaheb Kupekar|  title=Speaker of Maharashtra Assembly|  years=11 November 2009 – 10 November 2014|  after=Haribhau Bagde

  before=Jayant Patil|  title=Minister of Finance|  years=8 December 2008 – |  after=Sunil Tatkare

References