Decision on Manikrao Kokate after meeting him next week: Ajit Pawar

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

MUMBAI: Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said he will meet agriculture minister Manikrao Kokate of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) next week to hear him out on the controversy over the minister playing a card game on his phone in the legislative council, and then take a decision. Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar arrives at the Vidhan Bhavan for the monsoon session of the state assembly in Mumbai (PTI FILE)
Pawar also emphasised that this was not the first time Kokate, a five-time lawmaker, had landed in the middle of a controversy and had received a warning.
'He is yet to meet me. The last time he did something like this, I asked him to be careful. After the second incident, I had warned him. Now, I will meet him either on Monday or Tuesday to hear his side of the story and then take a call after discussing it with the chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis),' Pawar told reporters in the state secretariat on Thursday afternoon.
To be sure, Fadnavis has already made his displeasure known at Kokate's conduct in the legislative council.
'It was absolutely wrong. Ministers are expected to take legislative business very seriously even if their business is not on the agenda. Members do read documents and news but the video of Kokate playing rummy was inappropriate. Even though he tried to clarify that the rummy game popped up on his mobile screen, what happened was indecorous,' Fadnavis told reporters on July 21 after the video of Kokate playing an online card game in the legislative council emerged.
Kokate, who represents Sinnar assembly in Nashik, initially denied the accusation, insisting that he wanted to watch the proceedings on YouTube when an ad for a card game appeared on the screen and people thought he was playing. Legislator Rohit Pawar of the NCP (Sharad Pawar), who released the first video of the minister playing cards, put out two more to rebut the minister's claim and demonstrate that the card game visible on Kokate's phone was not an advertisement. Rohit said the NCP should sack the minister, a demand echoed by other opposition parties.
Responding to the demands, Ajit Pawar said he was an outspoken leader who called the spade a spade and pointed to a probe ordered by the legislative council chairman Ram Shinde into the episode.
Senior NCP leaders said Ajit Pawar has two options: to ask Fadnavis to drop Kokate from the council of ministers or change his portfolio.
'The final call will be taken by Ajit dada in consultation with senior leaders before meeting Fadnavis,' said a senior minister seeking anonymity. NCP state president Sunil Tatkare has already said Ajit Pawar will take a call on Kokate.
Kokate is no stranger to controversies. In January, he embarrassed the ruling alliance when he said that there was '3% to 4% corruption in every government scheme'.
In February, he compared farmers with beggars and said, 'Nowadays, even beggars do not even accept a single rupee but the government offers crop insurance to farmers for just one rupee.'
In April, he again sparked a row when he accused farmers of deliberately defaulting on crop loans in the hope of getting a loan waiver, and splurging the money saved on weddings and engagements.
The controversy further intensified when Kokate accused the media of twisting facts and offered a bizarre clarification for his previous statement about crop insurance for Re 1. 'The point of that statement was that the government takes Re 1 from farmers against insurance. It doesn't give money to them, so the beggar, in this case, is the government and not the farmers. But my statement was twisted,' he said.
An irked Fadnavis again expressed his unhappiness at the latter's fresh remarks. 'I didn't hear what he said but if he has said something like this, then it is wrong,' he said on Tuesday.