Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday divested Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) minister Manikrao Kokate of his portfolios, hours after a Nashik court issued an arrest warrant against him following his conviction in a cheating and fraud case dating back over three decades. This means Kokate will remain a cabinet minister but without any portfolio.
An arrest is looming large on Kokate as the Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to grant him immediate relief and suspend his conviction. The high court posted the matter for hearing on Friday. Besides arrest, Kokate also faces disqualification as an MLA if the high court does not suspend his conviction on Friday.
With pressure mounting from the Opposition for Kokate to resign, the 68-year-old was admitted to Lilavati Hospital on Wednesday, NCP insiders said, declining to share further details about his health. He has remained incommunicado for the past 24 hours. The MLA from Sinnar also skipped the state cabinet meeting and the NCP’s pre-cabinet meeting conducted by party president Ajit Pawar on Wednesday.
While Fadnavis was keen to make Kokate resign as a minister, deputy chief minister Pawar, who met him on Wednesday morning to discuss the matter, was reluctant to take such a step in the middle of local body elections across the state, according to NCP leaders.
“It would look bad if a party minister resigns in the middle of the local body polls campaign,” said a senior NCP minister, requesting anonymity. “The Opposition will get a handle to beat us with. Ajitdada is also wary of making two of his ministers resign within a year of the government’s formation. Already, we had to drop Dhananjay Munde from the cabinet earlier this year.” Munde was forced to step down in March due to his close aide’s alleged involvement in the brutal murder of a village sarpanch in Beed, which snowballed into a major political scandal.
Following his meeting with Pawar, Fadnavis decided to strip Kokate of his portfolios for now. “The Nashik court has already issued an arrest warrant. Kokate is hospitalised, and if he doesn’t get any relief from the high court, he will have to surrender to the police. If that happens, he will have to resign anyway,” said the NCP minister quoted earlier.
Fadnavis then sent a letter to governor Acharya Devvrat recommending that Kokate be relieved of his three portfolios—sports, youth welfare and minority affairs. All three portfolios will remain with Pawar for the time being.
In his reply to Fadnavis on Wednesday evening, Devvrat wrote, “I have received your letter dated October 17, 2025 recommending the allocation of the portfolio of ‘Sports & Youth Welfare, Minorities Development and Aukaf’ held by Adv Manikrao Kokate to Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister. I hereby convey my approval to your abovementioned recommendation.”
Later in the evening, Pawar held a meeting with his party’s senior leaders to discuss the matter. According to party sources, Kokate has already submitted his resignation to Pawar, who will now decide when to hand it over to the chief minister. Following the meeting, Pawar again called on Fadnavis to discuss the matter along with senior colleagues such as Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare.
The case against Kokate
The arrest warrant against Kokate was issued a day after a sessions court upheld the magistrate’s February judgment sentencing the minister to two years’ imprisonment. Kokate and his brother Vijay Kokate allegedly used forged documents to obtain two flats in a prime locality in Nashik under the chief minister’s quota for economically weaker sections in 1995.
The magistrate court issued the arrest warrant after hearing an application filed by Anjali Dighole, daughter of the late Tukaram Dighole, a former Shiv Sena minister who had filed the original complaint against Kokate over three decades ago.
Advocate Ashutosh Rathod, appearing for Dighole, confirmed the court’s order. “The honourable court has issued an arrest warrant against the minister, Manikrao Kokate. It stated that either the minister should surrender or the police should arrest him,” he said.
The order was issued under section 418 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which deals with the execution of prison sentences. It mandates that courts issue warrants to send convicted persons to jail for life or long-term sentences if they are not present.
Advocate Manoj Pingle, appearing for Kokate in the magistrate court, said that the minister had sought four days to surrender on humanitarian grounds. “We also informed the court that he got suddenly unwell and, hence, has been admitted to the hospital, but the court turned down our request,” Pingale told reporters.
As opposition leaders called for Kokate’s immediate sacking, an NCP leader said the party did not want to act under political pressure. “We still believe that Kokate can come out of this, and the matter has not yet been heard by the high court. The party cannot take action if someone demands so. With this logic, all the ministers will have to resign at some point in time,” the leader said.
Questioning the state government’s silence on Kokate’s disqualification, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar recalled quick action in cases involving opposition leaders. “Even after Manikrao Kokate has been convicted, why does the speaker of the legislative assembly, who is known to have a deep understanding of the law, not disqualify Kokate? As per the law, Rahul Gandhi’s membership in the Lok Sabha and Sunil Kedar’s membership in Maharashtra were cancelled. Then why is Kokate being given different treatment? Or is Kokate above the law?” said Pawar.
In December 2023, Congress MLA Sunil Kedar was disqualified by the state legislature secretariat within 24 hours of a Nagpur court convicting him of financial irregularities in a district co-operative bank.
Officials from the state legislature secretariat said they had not received any communication regarding the matter, including a copy of the court order. “Generally, either the local police or the concerned court shares the details of the verdict in which an elected representative was convicted for more than two years. In this case, we have not received any official communication from any of them in this regard. Once received, we will send it to the assembly speaker, Rahul Narwekar, and, with his approval, issue an order for disqualification,” said a senior official from the state legislature.