Aurangabad, May 26:
“Late Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was two times Chief Minister of the State, was extraordinary brilliant orator, amazing mass leader,” said Dr Sudhir Gavhane, former vice-chancellor of MGM University.
He was speaking in a lecture organised by Vilasrao Deshmukh Study Centre of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) on Wednesday to celebrate his birth anniversary.
Vice-chancellor Dr Pramod Yeole presided over the ceremony. Pro-VC Dr Shyam Shirsath, registrar Dr Jaishree Suryavanshi, centre director Dr Ram Chavan were present.
He said that Vilasrao came up from village leadership as a Sarpanch and deputy chairman of the Agriculture Produce Market Committee and rose to the level of the Chief Minister and Central Minister.
“He was a truly grassroot leader knowing ground realities of rural India and ability and competency to solve the problems of farmers as well as poor population. His performance as the minister and State CM was development-centric and contributing towards achieving social justice goal.
"The State has produced top-quality leadership from 19th century to 20 th century and even recent past including Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, Rajarshi Shau Maharaj, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Yeshwantrao Chavan , Shankarrao Chavan, Vasantrao Naik, Pramod Mahajan, Gopinathrao Munde and Vilasrao Deshmukh,” he added.