NCP accepts minister Manikrao Kokate's resignation

A day after his portfolios were taken away from him, NCP minister Manikrao Kokate on Thursday resigned from the Maharashtra cabinet following a court verdict upholding his conviction in a 1995 cheating and forgery case.

Deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar posted on 'X' that he had received Kokate's resignation and that he had forwarded it to CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Pawar further wrote, "Laws and rules are applicable to everyone and this has been our long-standing position and hence we have accepted this resignation in principle... In public life, one should always have constitutional propriety, institutional honesty and respecting the judiciary, this has always been our long-standing belief. We will keep striving to uphold law and order and democratic values."


The resignation of Kokate came just hours before a team of Nashik police left for Mumbai to arrest Kokate. On Wednesday, an arrest warrant was issued against him by the Nashik district court. Kokate has gotten himself admitted to a hospital in Mumbai claiming that he was unwell.

Kokate was convicted by a magistrate court in February this year for using forged documents to avail two flats that were meant for people from the Economically Weaker Sections.

Kokate had reportedly sent in his resignation on Tuesday itself to Ajit Pawar after the court verdict. However, the NCP sought to buy time by waiting for Kokate to approach the Bombay High Court to challenge the Nashik district court order. On Wednesday, just hours after the Nashik district court issued an arrest warrant against him, Kokate's portfolios were taken away from him but he continued to remain a minister without portfolios.

Fadnavis is set to have impressed on Ajit Pawar the need for Kokate's resignation. Kokate has been a controversial minister for his comments on farmers to playing rummy within the assembly, sparking widespread criticism. He was later shunted as the agriculture minister and was given sports and minority development.