Subhash Sureshchandra Deshmukh

Subhash Sureshchandra Deshmukh (born 12 March 1957) is the member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represents the solapur constituency of Maharashtra and is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

He is the founder and chairman of Lokmangal Group. Traditionally Solapur is the congress fort, in spite of that Subhash Deshmukh is emerging as a good leader. He is more of a social worker than a politician, and this is how he himself would like to be known in his constituency. With the cooperation of his activist friends, he has initiated a plethora of social service projects under the banner of Lokmangal, which over the years have grown like a large banyan tree in and around Solapur. The many institutions that he has set up have become the backbone of Solapur’s social, educational and industrial infrastructure.

Born in 1957 into a poor but idealistic and intensely nationalistic family ― his father was a dedicated school teacher who was actively associated with the RSS ― Deshmukh started his adult life by working on low-profile jobs such as helper in a grocery store and as clerk with a local contractor. He had seen and experienced the ravages of the 1972 drought, one of the worst in Maharashtra’s history. These hardships familiarized him with the dire problems like poverty, hunger and unemployment faced by ordinary people. Deshmukh decided to confront these challenges with a campaign of constructive activities. He founded the Lokmangal Group in 1998 with the objective of bringing stability and prosperity to the common people of Solapur district.

Lokmangal, which means “People’s Welfare”. His emblem is tortoise, which symbolizes slow but steady movement. His motto, in Marathi, is “Akhand Gatitoon Saarthakata” (Success through uninterrupted forward movement). Meet the man who embodies the message. Meet Subhash Deshmukh, the BJP MP (Lok Sabha) from Solapur, Maharashtra.

His first project was establishment of the Lokmangal Cooperative Bank in 1998, which now provides credit and fulfills the banking needs of the community, particularly farmers. The Lokmangal Cooperative Sugar Factory, which was built in just seven months, was registered in the Limca Book of Records for record time of its construction. The factory now produces ethanol, an important biofuel, and power through co-generation using bagasse as the raw material.

In last ten years, Lokmangal has also set up a number of other diverse projects:

Educational Activities : Deshmukh’s commitment towards quality education has resulted in a large network of educational institutions consisting of pre-primary, primary and secondary schools, colleges and institutes of higher learning. Lokmangal sponsors education of a number of students from weaker sections of society.

Cooperative Dairy : With more than 450 collection centers, 5 cold storage plants and a modern processing unit, Lokmangal Cooperative Dairy has created employment opportunities for more than 5,000 people. In addition, it has helped farmers to look at the dairy business as an alternative means of livelihood.

Lokmangal Medical Foundation and Research Center: Founded with the objective of making quality medical services available in the rural areas, the Lokmangal Medical Foundation and Research Center has set up a 500-bed hospital. The hospital has a community center that offers a number of National Health Programmes to the rural people.

Lokmangal Pratishthan: Identifying the pulse of the people is necessary to address social problems. Expensive marriages in rural areas are a major cause of indebtedness, which often makes a landowner into a poor farm worker. Deshmukh has started an innovative initiative to address this problem – collective wedding programmes offered for all religions. This enables farmers to live a life of social respect without selling their land to meet the cost of the marriage.

In addition, Lokmangal runs a number of other popular programmes such as felicitation of teachers, scholarships to bright and needy students, sports competitions, public libraries, cultural programmes, promotion of folk arts, etc. Lokmangal helps in betterment of lives of the people in Solapur district of Maharashtra.

When Subhash Deshmukh contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 against a political heavyweight from the Congress party, some commentators ruled him out of competition even before the race had begun. “He lacks political background,” they said. But his popularity among the people and his track record of social service was recognized by the late Shri Pramod Mahajan, who encouraged him to contest the Lok Sabha election. And Deshmukh won a resounding victory.