Journalism of Courage
Chandrakant Raghunath Patil is a police constable turned political leader and a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party. He was born in Pimpry Akaraut village in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra, to Raghunath, a police constable, and Sarubai Patil on March 16, 1955.
In 1951, his family relocated to Gujarat. He attended ITI, Surat, for post-school technical training. Similar to his father, he began his career in Gujarat Police in 1975 and worked as a police constable for 14 years before joining the BJP in 1989.
He started as the BJP Treasurer of Surat City and then became the BJP Vice President of 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.
He won his first Lok Sabha elections in 2009 from the Navsari constituency on a BJP ticket. He went on to retain his seat in the subsequent 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections to become the three-time member of the lower house of Indian Parliament.
Since 2020, he has been the President of the BJP Gujarat State unit and is the first non-Gujarati to hold this position.
