Maharashtra CM visits ailing Deshmukh

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan visited Union Minister and former chief minister of the state Vilasrao Deshmukh, who is under life supporting systems in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Global Hospital near here on Wednesday.

Hospital sources told Deccan Herald that Chavan, accompanied by several of his state cabinet colleagues, spent about 45 minutes in the hospital in a closed-door meeting with Vilasrao’s family members. “His condition continues to be critical, but stable,” sources said but declined to elaborate. The visit indicates the growing concerns in the Congress-NCP camp over the health condition of the Union minister. Sources said the doctors at the hospital were yet to take a decision on the proposed liver transplant surgery on Deshmukh, whose reported kidney failure has been compounded by a liver problem.

Vilasrao would continue to be under close observation for a few more days, sources added. Earlier, another Maharashtra MP and a member of the NCP, Vilas Muttemwar visited the union minister at the hospital.  “Vilasraoji’s health condition here is better than what it was at the Breach Candy Hospital, and that’s all we know,” Muttemwar  told the media.