| The Person |
Early life
 Pratibha Kumari Patil was born to Narayan Paglu Rao in Nadgaon, Maharashtra. She studied at R.R. School at Jalgaon . She completed her M.A. from M.J. College, Jalgaon, and obtained a Law Degree from the Government Law College, Mumbai. During her college days, she excelled in table tennis, winning various inter-college tournaments. In 1962, Pratibha Patil was voted "College Queen" of Mooljee Jaitha (MJ) College in Jalgaon The same year, she won an assembly election from Edlabad constituency on the Indian National Congress ticket.
She married educator Devisingh Ransingh Shekhawat on July 7, 1965. Being active in Maharashtra politics she preferred not to take her husband's surname. The couple has a son and a daughter.
Political career
Pratibha Patil entered politics in 1962 when she was aged 27. She became a deputy minister for education after re-election in 1967. In her next terms (1972-78) she was a full cabinet minister for the state. In successive congress governments, she handled the portfolios like tourism, social welfare and housing under several chief ministers, Vasantdada Patil, Babasaheb Bhosle, S. B. Chavan and Sharad Pawar. She has never lost an election that she has contested. |
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