to H.D. Deve Gowda, Patil moved over to Indira Gandhi's Congress-I. The twin defections of Veerendra Patil in Karnataka & Hitendra Desai in Gujarat turned around the fortunes of Congress(I), which otherwise had a spate of allegations against it. Winning election to the Lok Sabha from Bagalkot, he became Union Labour and Petroleum minister. However, he was later dropped from the Cabinet. He won Gulbarga seat in 1984 Indian general elections by defeating Vidyadhar Guruji, a former MLA from Gurmitkal. 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). With fiscal deficit reigning high & diminishing returns, Veerendra Patil took charge at a difficult time. He appointed M. Rajasekara Murthy as finance minister. The duo attacked the seconds liquor lobby by hiking the export duty by 10 times, from 2% to 20%. This had the dual-effect of reducing seconds-liquor consumption and also boosting the revenue of state government. It is to Patil's credit that he summoned the courage to take on the liquor lobby, at the risk of angering many benefactors of his party. He stuck to the line that his duty was first to the state and then, next to his party. This honesty proved dearly to him, though he became widely popular among the woman-folk of the state. 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. 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. He died on 14 March 1997