Veerendra Patil

Patil never recouped after this incident. His health failed him and he decided against contesting the 1994 elections. Congress lost miserably and could not even become the main opposition party in that election.

His efforts to streamline the administration and stem the rot in the secretariat was acclaimed by many. However, he was felled by a stroke in October 1990 just as communal riots broke out in some parts of the state. It was widely speculated then, that the riots were engineered by Congress politicians who were keen to get rid of Patil. He was unceremoniously sacked by the then Congress President Rajiv Gandhi.

With none of the state congress leaders able to draw the masses, the state leadership fell onto Veerendra Patil's shoulders. As state party chief in Rajiv Gandhi's time, Patil reinvigorated the Congress in the state. The anti incumbency wave and the split in the Janata party resulted in a landslide victory for the Congress in November 1989. Veerendra Patil had led the election campaign on twin promises: Water & Transport facility to every village. Congress won 178 out of 224 MLA seats, which is its largest victory to-date (2020).

He won Gulbarga seat in 1984 Indian general elections by defeating Vidyadhar Guruji, a former MLA from Gurmitkal.

Later, Patil returned to the hub of state politics as chief of the Janata Party's Karnataka state unit. He was also made the sacrificial lamb in the 1978 Lok Sabha by-election in Chikmagalur which featured Indira Gandhi in the fray. Through the often acrimonious campaign, Patil, who was the candidate of the Janata Party, refused to indulge in personal attacks on Indira Gandhi. The same year, he lost his Rajya Sabha seat to Hegde. When he lost the state Janata Party presidency to H.D. Deve Gowda, Patil moved over to Indira Gandhi's Congress-I.

However, Patil was also charged with favouring his Lingayat (Banajiga) community. After the Congress split in 1969, Patil's Congress (O) party remained in power in the state until 1971 and crashed to a dismal defeat in the state assembly election in 1972 at the hands of Congress (I).

Born in a middle-class family in Chincholi in Kalaburagi district, Patil belonged to the dominant Banajiga Lingayat community. He was first made a Deputy minister for Home in the S. Nijalingappa government in 1957. He was elected several times from Chincholi assembly constituency of Gulbarga district to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. In his youth, Patil teamed up with Ramakrishna Hegde and took control of the Congress organisation in the state on Nijalingappa's behalf. Being young and charismatic ministers in Nijalingappa cabinet, they both were referred as 'Lava-Kusha'. When he moved to federal politics, Nijalingappa chose Patil as his successor.

Veerendra Basappa Patil (Kannada: ವೀರೇಂದ್ರ ಪಾಟೀಲ್; 28 February 1924 – 14 March 1997) was a senior Indian politician and was twice, the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He became Chief Minister for the first time from 1968–1971 and the second time was almost 18 years later, from 1989–1990.