Vilasrao Deshmukh's cremation at his native village today

Mumbai: Union science and technology minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who passed away in Chennai this afternoon, will be cremated at his native Babhalgaon village in Latur district on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to attend the ceremony. The state government has declared a three day mourning for Deshmukh who had served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra twice. Leaders from across the political spectrum hailed Deshmukh as a 'pragmatic' politician and an 'able' administrator.

The funeral procession will start at 3 pm and last rites would be performed at 4 pm.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are expected to attend the ceremony.

Deshmukh, who was suffering from a serious liver and kidney ailment, died at a Chennai hospital on Tuesday afternoon. He died of multiple organ failure at around 1:40 pm.

Deshmukh is survived by his wife Vaishali Deshmukh and three sons. He was admitted to Chennai's Global Hospitals on August 6 and the doctors had been planning to retrieve the liver from a donor at the hospital for him.

The 67-year-old former Maharashtra chief minister had shown signs of improvement and had been on and off the ventilator before being prepared for a transplant.

However, an attempt to harvest liver from a brain dead donor from a government hospital had proved futile as the man died before doctors could operate on him.

Deshmukh had been shifted to Chennai from Mumbai in an air ambulance in a critical condition.

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