Under fire NCP minister Manikrao Kokate stripped of Agriculture Ministry portfolio; Dattatray Bharne given charge

Mumbai, Aug 1 (IANS) Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Minister Manikrao Kokate, who was under fire for playing rummy in the Maharashtra State Council and calling the state government a "beggar", has been removed from the Agriculture department on Thursday, to avoid further embarrassment to the party and the BJP-led MahaYuti government.

He has been allocated the departments of Youth, Sports, Minority Affairs and Auqaf.

On the other hand, the current Minister of Sports, Youth, Minority Affairs and Auqaf Dattatray Bharne has been allotted the State Agriculture department.

The General Administration department's Additional Chief Secretary Manisha Verma on late Thursday evening released a notification this regard.

Earlier during the day, the Deputy Chief Minister and NCP Chief Ajit Pawar requested the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to make these changes.

Kokate's video about playing rummy went viral on July 20 that triggered a big controversy as the Opposition and various farmer organisations demanded his resignation citing his apathy towards farmers.

The Chhava Sanghatana protested Kokate's act of playing rummy in the Maharashtra State Council when its senior leader Vijaykumar Ghadge was assaulted by state NCP youth wing chief Suraj Chavan and nine others after they played cards on state party Chief Sunil Tatkare demanding Kokate's resignation.

Later, Deputy CM Pawar was compelled to remove Chavan from his post and issuing clarification that NCP does not support any violence.

Despite this, Kokate remained adamant despite chorus rising for his resignation.

He held a press conference and said why he should resign as he went on to ask if he has committed a rape or robbery.

He clarified that he was not playing rummy but while switching on his mobile the advertisement came that was video-graphed.

Kokate later demanded that a probe by the Maharashtra State Council Chairman and Assembly Speaker into the videography and announced that if found guilty in that inquiry he would resign during the Winter session to be held in Nagpur in December this year.

However, Kokate was snubbed and reprimanded by Deputy CM Pawar on Tuesday, especially in the wake of sparking various controversies.

He was asked not to make controversial statements, which will dent the state government's image and impact its good work.

Deputy CM Pawar signalled that he would not be dropped from the Cabinet but asked Kokate to stop making statements that will lead to a controversy.

Kokate had made controversial statements a few months ago while talking about the crop insurance of farmers.

He had commented, "Nowadays, even beggars do not take a single rupee. However, we gave crop insurance to farmers for one rupee. Some people misused this scheme."

While clarifying his earlier comment, Kokate later said that the state government is a beggar and not the farmers.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also met the Cabinet Ministers after the weekly Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday and asked them to focus on their departmental works instead of getting embroiled into controversies.

He had warned the Ministers that if they continue to spark controversies he would be forced to take action against them.

He sent a strong message to Kokate, Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat, Soil and Water Conservation Minister Sanjay Rathod and Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam, who have been hogging headlines due to various controversies.

(Sanjay Jog can be contacted at sanjay.j@ians.in)

--IANS

sj/khz