Keshubhai Patel, awarded Padma Bhushan posthumously, was one of the tallest leaders of Gujarat. Towards the fag end of his career, he gave a fight to Narendra Modi before he (Modi) became the Chief Minister for the first time. Modi, having ruled Gujarat for 13 years, became the Prime Minister. Keshubhai may have faded from limelight, but he remains an icon for BJP in Gujarat. , He joined the RSS in 1940. He was jailed during Emergency. Keshubhai was instrumental in creating a social base for the BJP in a state where the Congress was the dominant party
Keshubhai was six-time member of the Gujarat Assembly and the Chief Minister in 1995 and from 1998 to 2001. He was a member of RSS since 1940, of Jana Sangh since 1960, of Janata Party in 1970 and the BJP from 1980 when BJP was formed. He subsequently left the BJP in 2012 and formed Gujarat Parivartan party. He was elected from Visavadar in the 2012 state assembly election but later merged his party with BJP.
Keshubhai was born on July 24, 1924 as Keshubhai Desai in a Leuva Patidar family in Visavadar town of the present day Junagarh district. His family was said to have migrated from Vasco village in Naiad of Kheda district, a village of Patidars, where revenue clerks are known as Desai. The family migrated to Saurashtra and ran a flour mill to eke out a living. Jana Sangh veterans like Chief Minister Shankarsinh Vaghela, who knew Keshubhai for 55 years, says he ran this mill in Hathikhana area of Rajkot for a living, and described him as a “self made” man who built the party from scratch.
According to Keshubhai, “many Patels from Amreli and Junagarh are Desais —- clerks– who collected taxes from land owners and were found in the tiny state of Vasco, near Naiad and Saurashtra”. Throughout school, he was Keshubhai Desai till Junagarh leader Survykant Acharya (a former BJP MP) began to refer him as ‘Keshubhai Patel’ in Public, and the name stuck. In Rajkot, he went to Alfred High School which is also Mahatma Gandhi alma mater.
Patel began his journey in electoral polis by contesting in the Rajkot municipality and later Rajkot Municipal Corporation. He started his political career as a worker for Jana Sangh, of which he was a founder member, in 1960. He lost the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha election in 1972 from Wankaner assembly constituency to the Congress. In 1975 he won from Rajkot Vidhan constituency and became minister for irrigation from 1978 to 1980 in the BJS-backed government of the Congress (Organisation), popularly called Sanstha Congress led by Chief Minister Babubhai Jashbhai Patel. During the Emergency, Patel was among 3,500 people from Gujarat to be jailed under MISA. He was involved in relief work following the 1979 Machchhu dam failure which devastated Morbi.
Keshubhai organized the 1995 assembly election for the BJP against the Congress which the party won. Patel became Chief Minister on m March 14, 1995 but resigned seven months later as Shankar Singh Vaghela revolted against him. Suresh Mehta succeeded him as consensus candidate. BJP was split as Rashtriya Janata Party was formed by Vaghela who became the Chief Minister with the support of Congress .The assembly was dissolved in 1998 when Congress withdraw its support. The BJP, led by Patel returned to power in the assembly election and he became the Chief Minister again.
Patel resigned as the chief minister on October 2, 2001 due to poor health. He was succeeded by Narendra Modi.
Patel was diagnosed positive for COVID-19 in September 2020 but apparently recovered after initial infection. He was taken to a hospital where he died the same day. (IPA Service)
