Former Gujarat CM Keshubhai Patel dead after prolonged illness

Gandhinagar: Former Gujarat chief minister and veteran BJP leader Keshubhai Patel passed away on Thursday, days after he had recovered from Covid-19 infection. The 92-year-old leader complained of breathing trouble in the morning and was taken to a private hospital in Ahmedabad where he breathed his last.

More than as the first BJP CM of Gujarat, Patel will be remembered as the architect of saffron politics in the state. Born to an extremely poor family in 1928, he did not reach high school in terms of formal education. But his peers remember him as an astute politician with deep understanding of people’s issues, genuine care for the dispossessed and graceful behaviour.

“It has been a relationship of more than 55 years,” Shankersinh Vaghela told ET.