He was in the reckoning but party colleague Vilasrao Deshmukh got the post Later, he fell out with the Congress leadership over granting of statehood to Vidarbha.

[6] Ranjeet Deshmukh held several Cabinet portfolios right from rural development in which he made significant contribution pioneering village cleanliness drives, to education, technical education, health, agriculture and textiles.

In 2004 he unsuccessfully contested from Nagpur West Assembly seat and was defeated by former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP.

[12][13] His younger son Dr. Amol Deshmukh fought the 2014 Assembly Election on a Nationalist Congress Party ticket.

[14] In 2002 along with Chikki Panday he founded the 'Akshara Foundation of Arts & Learning' which works towards providing education to under privileged children.