Hours after losing portfolio, NCP Minister Manikrao Kokate quits Maharashtra cabinet

Mumbai: Hours after NCP’s Manikrao Kokate was stripped off the Sports and Youth Welfare, Minorities Development and Wakf portfolios by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the controversial politician resigned from the ministry — the second minister of the Ajit Pawar-led outfit to go home.

Earlier this year, NCP’s Dhananjay Munde had to resign as the state’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister after his close aide Valmik Karad was arrested in a extortion-cum-murder case.

The resignation of Kokate has come just as the BJP-led Maha Yuti-NDA alliance is completing one year in office.

Kokate is currently admitted to the Lilavati Hospital & Research Centre in Mumbai following complaints of discomfort and chest pain.

Kokate is facing an arrest warrant from the First-Class Magistrate Court in Nashik days after the Nashik District & Sessions Court upheld the sentence of two years rigorous imprisonment in a 1995 cheating case to secure flats under government quota.

“Respecting the verdict of the Nashik Sessions Court, I hereby tender my resignation on moral grounds still the Bombay High Court decides on my plea,” Kokate said in his resignation addressed to Pawar, the Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President.

This comes hours after Fadnavis stripped him of his portfolios and entrusted it with Pawar, who is the state’s Finance, Planning and Excise Minister.

“The resignation by Kokate may please be accepted,” Pawar wrote to Fadnavis.

Meanwhile, Pawar, in a statement said: “Kokate has submitted his resignation to me following the outcome of the Nashik Court’s verdict. In keeping with our party’s long-standing philosophy that the rule of law is supreme and above all individuals, the resignation has been accepted in principle. I have forwarded Kokate’s resignation to the CM for due consideration and acceptance, in accordance with constitutional procedure.”

Pawar said that the NCP has always believed that public life must be guided by constitutional morality, institutional integrity, and respect for the judiciary. “We stand firmly by the rule of law and will continue to act in a manner that upholds democratic values and public trust,” he added.