By Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: Several Muslim leaders of Maharashtra have expressed sorrow on the demise of Union minister and former chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh. Deshmukh, 67, died on Tuesday of liver failure and multiple organ failure in Chennai.
Abu Asim Azmi, Samajwadi Party leader and MLA of Maharashtra Assembly expressed shock and deep grief. He said, “We lost a talented, young, good administrator and able politician.” He offered deep condolences to the Deshmukh family. Deshmukh was Union Minister for Science & Technology.
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Maharashtra President, Taufique Aslam who also hails from Latur, the district where Vilasrao was born in 1945 also expressed his condolences to the family and said, “He was the great wall against communal forces and never compromised with them in Maharashtra.” Aslam also praised him saying that “I know him personally and have a family relation with him. He was good human being and used to help people personally and knew the conditions of most of the families of Latur.”
Vilasrao Deshmukh was airlifted on last Monday from Breach Canady Hospital in Mumbai to the super speciality Global Health City Hospital in Chennai. Doctors attending on him confirmed that the end came at 1.40pm on Tuesday.
He was born in Babhalgaon in Maharashtra’s Latur district. Deshmukh joined the Congress in the 1970s.
Deshmukh was chief minister of Maharashtra twice and resigned soon after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, over charges that his state government failed to prevent the three-day rampage.
Later he entered the Rajya Sabha and became a minister in the union cabinet, heading the ministry for heavy industries and public enterprises.
The politician is survived by his wife and three sons, including Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh.