What did Kokate say in his defence?
In his defence, the Maharashtra Agricultural Minister and NCP leader said that he was actually checking YouTube to find out what was happening in the lower house of the state legislature. He also slammed Rohit Pawar and said it was the NCP-SP MLA who was actually addicted to playing rummy.
“Rohit Pawar has become addicted to playing rummy. It wasn’t rummy, but solitaire on my phone. Some PA or OSD must have downloaded that game on my phone… I had opened YouTube to see what was going on in the lower house. How does he know what rummy is? I don’t know what rummy is. He must play it a lot, so he thought I was playing it too. It was a solitaire game… 10 different types of ads come up on YouTube… You have to watch it for 30 seconds, and you can’t even skip it,” Kokate was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Kokate not new to controversies…
The Maharashtra minister is not new to controversies. In April this year, he claimed that farmers use the money received from agriculture schemes for weddings and other activities, instead of using it for their benefit. Kokate was later forced to issue an apology on his statement.
Besides, the Maharashtra minister and his brother Sunil Kokate were convicted by a Nashik court earlier this year for submitting fake documents to secure flats under the government quota. The two were sentenced to two years of jail, but they filed an appeal against their conviction, which has been stayed by a sessions court.