Jana Sangh veterans like former chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, who knew Keshubhai for 55 years, says he ran this mill in Hathikhana area of Rajkot for a living, and described him as a "self-made" man who built the party from scratch.

Throughout school, I was Keshubhai Desai, till our Junagadh leader Suryakant Acharya [a former BJP MP] began to refer to me as 'Keshubhai Patel' in public, and the name stuck".

During the Emergency, Patel was among the 3,500 people from Gujarat to be jailed under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act.

[5] In 1980, when Jan Sangh was dissolved, he became a senior organiser of the newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

[10] Patel became the chief minister of Gujarat on 14 March 1995 but resigned seven months later as his colleague Shankersinh Vaghela revolted against him.

BJP was split as the Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) was formed by Vaghela who became the chief minister in October 1996 with support of the Congress (I).

The BJP, led by Patel, returned to power in the 1998 assembly elections and he became the chief minister again on 4 March 1998.

Allegations of abuse of power, corruption and poor administration, as well as a loss of BJP seats in by-elections and mismanagement of relief works in the aftermath of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, prompted the BJP's national leadership to seek a new candidate for the office of chief minister.

[7][16] Leela Patel died in their home in Gandhinagar after an electrical fire broke out in the exercise room on 21 September 2006.