Conviction for forgery to card game row, Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate again lands in a controversy
In February, a Nashik district court sentenced the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader to two years in prison for his role in a 30-year-old case involving document forgery and fraud. The case pertained to the illegal acquisition of two flats under the Chief Minister's discretionary quota. Under the law, any elected representative sentenced to two or more years in prison stands to lose their seat. Kokate, however, managed to retain his position after a sessions court in Nashik granted a stay on the conviction.
The complaint was originally filed by former minister and three-time MLA Tukaram Dighole who alleged that Kokate and his brother had submitted forged documents to fraudulently acquire flats in the Nirman View Apartment complex in Nashik's Yeolekar Mala area. Dighole, a former Congress leader, lost to Kokate in the 1999 Assembly election in what was Kokate's debut win as a Shiv Sena MLA. Dighole passed away in 2019.
According to the prosecutors, the Kokate brothers falsely claimed to belong to the Low-Income Group (LIG) and declared they owned no other property. This misrepresentation allowed them to benefit from the CM's 10% discretionary housing quota. Investigations later revealed that the documents submitted were forged.
Kokate, a five-time MLA from Sinnar in Nashik district, has had a politically diverse career. Once a member of both the Shiv Sena and the Congress, he is now aligned with the NCP of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Following the NCP's split, Kokate chose to side with Ajit and was rewarded with the Agriculture portfolio in the Devendra Fadnavis-led government.
Controversy, however, has continued to shadow him.
Just days before his conviction in February, Kokate triggered outrage with remarks comparing farmers to beggars. 'Even a beggar doesn't take one rupee, but here we are offering crop insurance for Re 1. Yet some people still try to misuse it,' he said, further alleging that applicants from other states were exploiting the scheme.
In April, he courted fresh criticism after accusing farmers of intentionally defaulting on crop loans to benefit from government waivers, and then spending the money on personal celebrations. 'You take loans and then default for five to ten years, expecting them to be waived. Farmers are not investing in their land. The government gives assistance for everything from drip irrigation to ponds and pipelines,' Kokate said at the time.
On Sunday, the state agriculture minister found himself at the centre of a latest row after a purported video of him playing an online card game on his phone in the Assembly was shared on social media by NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar.
Kokate, however, denied the allegation. 'I was not playing Rummy,' he said. 'I was trying to watch YouTube to find out what was happening in the Lower House. Someone had downloaded the game on the phone, and I was just trying to skip it. The video might be from when I was trying to close it.'
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