Groomed by the Nationalist Congress Party chief, Sharad Pawar, it was Patil's strong organisational skills and result-oriented strategies that paid rich dividends for the party in western Maharashtra.
The BJP-led government's decision to grant Kunbi status to individuals from the Maratha community has opened a Pandora's box.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said that he supports the demand to award capital punishment to rapists. Replying to a debate on atrocities against women, Patil termed the Delhi gangrape incident as deplorable, and sought the highest possible punishment to the accused. The view was earlier expressed by women legislators in the Legislative Council on Thursday.
Stating that there was no anti-incumbency against the ruling Democratic Front government in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party state unit chief R R Patil has said that voters in the state do not vote on the basis of emotional issues.
Former Maharashtra Home Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party leader R R Patil is undergoing treatment for cancer at Lilavati Hospital and is responding well to chemotherapy, hospital authorities said on Monday.
The group of terrorists who carried out mayhem in Mumbai for over 60 hours, arrived in the city on November 26, the day of the terror attacks, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil said on Saturday
The Maharashtra government on Monday said Pakistan-based terrorists were training women as 'fidayeen' attackers, possibly to strike important cities including Mumbai and Pune.
Deshmukh sent the list of portfolios to Maharashtra Governor Mohammad Fazal on Friday morning.
Welcoming the transfer of Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik following the August 11 violence in south Mumbai, MNS president Raj Thackeray on Thursday again demanded resignation of Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, who he said was "ignorant" about his department.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Friday said in the legislative assembly that records did not show that terror suspect Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, arrested last month in Delhi, had stayed in the MLA hostel rooms of state Minister Fauzia Khan in 2006.
The Congress on Monday saw no wrong in the return of R R Patil as Maharashtra home minister, but dismissed suggestions of bringing back Shivraj Patil as the Union home minister, who too had quit in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes.
Minutes before he fell to the terrorists' bullets on November 26, Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare had wept before the then Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil, narrating the agony of being targeted over handling of the Malegaon blast probe.
R R Patil, who also holds the home portfolio, was instrumental in bringing in the amendment to Bombay Police Act that banned dance bars.
Terming the registration of FIR against Home Minister R R Patil by Karnataka police as "wrong", Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said he would speak to his counterpart from the neighbouring state and request him to drop the charges.
In the wake of the attack by Naxal in Chhattisgarh, killing 28 people, including political leaders and security forces, R R Patil, home minister of Maharashtra, talks to Sanjay Jog on what is to be done.
The Maharashtra government is ready to hold talks with those involved in Naxal activities as well as their sympathisers, Home Minister R R Patil said on Thursday.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil came down heavily upon the Congress on Sunday and said the party has become "a pain" for the NCP.
The perpetrators of the crime would be brought to justice very soon, said the state Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil.
Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday came to the defence of Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, saying that he could not be blamed for the arrest of two girls by the Palghar police over a Facebook comment.
In the backdrop of the revelation that Wazhul Kamar Khan, whose name figures in the '50 most wanted' fugitives' list submitted to Pakistan, has been staying in neighbouring Thane district, the Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said that Home Minister R R Patil should clear air on the issue.
Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt has said the reinstatement of R R Patil as Maharashtra's home minister, a few days before the anniversary of the terror attack on Mumbai, was the government's way of telling citizens that what they feel is not important. In an open letter to All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi, Bhatt said the attitude behind all the political manoeuvring has hurt him."R R Patil sits here as the symbol of the impotent rage of a nation," he said.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, his predecessor and state unit chief R R Patil and senior ministers Ajit Pawar and Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil figure in the first list of 80 candidates announced by the Nationalist Congress Party for the state assembly elections scheduled to be held on October 13. The Sharad Pawar-led party, which has been a part of the ruling alliance with Congress in the state for the last 10 years, is contesting 114 of the total 288 seats.
Maharashtra government Friday ordered a high-level probe into the attack on gangster Abu Salem inside Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai with Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil saying officials responsible for the lapse will face action.
Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Wednesday said there should be a timeframe to award punishment in terror cases and sought to know for how long the government should take care of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, facing death penalty in the 26/11 case.
The Nationalist Congress Party is at a loss to explain the turn of events after the meeting Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil had with some alleged underworld elements at his party colleague Naseem Siddiqui's residence.
Hailing the arrest of Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal as a big success for intelligence agencies, Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Thursday said a state Anti-Terrorism Squsad team would soon leave to interrogate him and seek his custody.
Triggering a fresh set of problems for Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil, the state's Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal has blamed Patil of evading his call of duty during the Mumbai terror attacks by staying indoors and refusing to visit the venue on the first day of the attacks.
The Maharashtra government is firm on not letting dance bars reopen, Home Minister R R Patil informed the state Assembly on Friday, and indicated that it will bring in an ordinance soon to ensure that the dance bar ban continues.
The trial of the case relating to the gang rape of a photojournalist will be held in a fast-track court and the charge-sheet be filed in a "very short time", Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil said on Friday.
With objectionable posts on social networking sites trigging violence over the past week, the Maharashtra government is mulling action against not only those who upload them but also against those who "like" and forward them, state's Home Minister R R Patil said on Monday.
A circular will be issued in a week to enable women journalists to seek help from the nearest police station when they are on assignments, in case they have any suspicions about that particular area, Patil said, as he faced outrage over the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old photojournalist on assignment in the heart of Mumbai on Thursday.
Blaming Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, the opposition on Friday demanded his resignation in the wake of the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old photojournalist in Mumbai.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party still wants to throw its weight behind Maharashtra Navnirman Sena head Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray in Mahim assembly seat, which the ruling Shiv Sena is also contesting.
The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Friday released its second list, comprising seven candidates including MLA Zeeshan Siddique and two former Bharatiya Janata Party MPs, for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections.
'There was some intelligence that he'll be killed before the whole process -- after sessions court, high court, Supreme Court, mercy petition before the governor, the President -- was completed; they (Pakistani intelligence agencies) will somehow manage to kill him.'
Though the name of the district minister is not mentioned in the book, Madam Commissioner, the retired IPS officer apparently points to Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, the present deputy chief minister of Maharashtra. Pawar held the post of "guardian minister" of Pune district at the time, when the state had a Congress-NCP government.
'We do not attach any importance if someone is writing about whether we create new leadership or not'
While Fadnavis has admitted that the letter was sent to him in good faith, he said that he would have to discuss with the party leadership before taking a decision.
Leaders from across political parties expressed their grief at Patil's demise