67-year-old Deshmukh passed away at 1340 hours at the GlobalHospital, a week after he was flown here from Mumbai in an air ambulance in acritical condition.
He is survived by his wife, Vaishali, and three sons -Ritiesh (Bollywood actor), Amit (MLA) and Dheeraj (manages family-runeducational trusts).
The body will be cremated at his native Babhalgaon villagein Latur district tomorrow. It will be brought to Latur tomorrow and kept athis house in Babhalgaon from 9 am to 3 pm for people to pay their lastrespects, his brother Dilip Deshmukh, said.
"His heart stopped beating at 1.40 pm. As you know hehas been suffering from liver failure which has led to kidney failure and alsohis lungs were being supported with ventilator and various drugs," thehospital chairman K Ravindranath told reporters.
Ravindranath said the minister was brought into the hospitalin a very serious condition.
An attempt to harvest liver from a brain dead donor from agovernment hospital here last night failed as the man died before doctors couldoperate on him, hospital sources said.
A team from Global Hospitals, where Deshmukh was admitted onAugust 6, had planned to retrieve the liver from the 31-year-old donor at thehospital, but he died, forcing them to look for another donor, the sourcessaid.
The former Maharashtra Chief Minister had shown signs ofimprovement and been on and off the ventilator before being prepared for atransplant.
Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned for the day as amark of respect to the departed leader.
His death was announced by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shindein the Lok Sabha.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condoled his demise describinghim as a trusted colleague and an able administrator.
"Mr Deshmukh was a trusted colleague and an ableadministrator who worked at panchayat, state and central levels with admirablededication," Singh said in his message.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi led her party in expressingcondolences over the death of Deshmukh.
"It is profound sense of grief that we announce thetragic demise of Deshmukh.
Congress President expresses her condolences to the familymembers.
"His untimely death is a loss for all of us. He was oneof the leaders with contact among the masses and a huge fan following,"Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary told reporters.
Though Deshmukh, was a Minister without portfolio, he wasearlier Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences. He was givenadditional charge of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) afterresignation of Virbhadra Singh two months ago.
