Devisingh Shekhawat, husband of former President of India Pratibha Tai Patil and first mayor of Amravati city, passed away after a brief illness on Friday at a hospital in Pune, sources said. He was 89, Shekhawat breathed his last at 9.26 a.m. today.
He will be cremated today at six o'clock in the evening in Pune. Shekhawat had a fall outside his house in Pune on February 12.
Shekhawat, a member of the Indian National Congress, represented the Amravati Assembly constituency in the Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1990. After his defeat in the 1990 election, he became Amravati’s first mayor after winning the Amravati Municipal Corporation election in 1991.
He worked as a teacher in the school of Shree Shivaji Shikshan Sansthan in Nerpingala. He then taught students as a professor of chemistry at Sri Shivaji College. In 1969, he established the Vidyabharati Shikshan Sanstha and started the first school in the Murbagh area of Amravati city. In 1971, he started Vidyabharati College in the camp area of Amravati city.
On July 7, 1965, Dr Shekhawat and Pratibhatai Patil got married. His son Raosaheb (Rajendra) Shekhawat was an MLA from the Amravati assembly constituency between 2009 and 2014. After former President Pratibhatai Patil's presidential term ended on July 15, 2012, she settled in Pune along with Shekhawat.