Vilasrao Deshmukh - RIP

The body of union minister Vilasrao Desmukh, who died in Chennai on Tuesday, was brought to his home district in Maharashtra by a special flight on Wednesday morning, a party official said. His funeral will be held in the evening. A huge crowd waited outside the airport as family members,associates and friends of the former Maharashtra chief minister accompanied his body from Latur airport to Dayanand School in the city.The body will be kept there till 2pm to allow people to pay their last respects. Later it will be taken to Deshmukh's native Babhalgaon village where it will be kept for an hour at his ancestral home.
Weeping supporters, friends, farmers and villagers of Latur and surrounding districts queued up outside the Dayanand School to catch his last glimpse.
Deshmukh's last rites will be conducted after 4 pm with full state honours.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi will attend the funeral of Vilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday.
Union ministers Sharad Pawar and Sushilkumar Shinde will also be present, sources said. AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi confirmed the visit of Gandhi

 

Vilasrao Dagadojirao Deshmukh was an Indian politician and served as Minister of Science and Technology and Minister of Earth Sciences. Vilasrao Deshmukh was a Member of Parliament in Rajya Shabha, India.


Born: May 26, 1945, Babhalgaon
Died: August 14, 2012
Spouse: Vaishali Deshmukh
Party: Indian National Congress
Children: Riteish Deshmukh, Dheeraj Deshmukh, Amit Deshmukh
Education: University of Pune, ILS Law College


Deshmukh's eldest son and Latur legislator Amit performed the last rites of his father at a family farm in his native village.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, and other union ministers including Praful Patel, Vayalar Ravi, Rajiv Shukla and Mukul Wasnik, among others, were present at the funeral.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, Republican Party of India chief Ramdas Athawale and other opposition leaders also paid their last respects to Deshmukh and expressed their grief after meeting his family.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Karnataka chief minister N. Dharam Singh were also present.
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As a mark of respect to the departed leader, all shops and businesses remained closed for the second consecutive day Wednesday and many people observed fast, locals said.
Security arrangements at levels never before seen were put in place since Wednesday morning when Deshmukh's body was brought by a special Indian Air Force aircraft to Latur for the last rites in his native village.
Deshmukh spent his childhood in Babhalgaon, became one of its youngest sarpanch (village head), and later went on to become Maharashtra chief minister twice and also a union minister.
He breathed his last in Chennai's Global Hospital Tuesday after cardiac arrest following multiple organ failure.
Even as people filed past the coffin weeping, his sons Amit, Dheeraj and Riteish accepted condolences from the host of dignitaries and VVIPs who had reached Latur for the funeral.
The state government had organised a state funeral for Deshmukh and declared a three-day official mourning.