Maharashtra GOVT: In the late night reshuffle in Maharashtra, the Agriculture Ministry was taken away from Manikrao Kokate and the Sports and Minority Department was given to him, Dattatreya Bharne has been appointed as the new Agriculture Minister.

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As part of the major reshuffle in the Maharashtra government late last night, Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) leader Manikrao Kokate has been removed from the post of Agriculture Minister and has been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Welfare.

At the same time, the current Sports Minister Dattatreya Bharane has now been made the new Agriculture Minister of the state. This decision was taken in a notification issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) of the state.

Manikrao Kokate now gets this department

Under this change, Manikrao Kokate has now been given the additional charge of Minority Development and Auqaf Department along with the Ministry of Sports and Youth Welfare. Dattatreya Bharane is an MLA from Indapur in Pune district, while Kokate is an MLA from Sinnar in Nashik. Both the leaders belong to the NCP faction led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and hold ministerial posts in the state government.

Why was the post of Agriculture Minister taken away?

Kokate recently came into controversy when a video of him surfaced during the proceedings of the Maharashtra Legislative Council in which he was seen playing online ‘rummy’ game on mobile.

This video was shared on social media by Sharad Pawar faction MLAs Rohit Pawar and Jitendra Awhad. Earlier, Kokate also came under criticism when he compared farmers to beggars, which caused a stir in political circles.

This is not the first time that a leader of the Ajit Pawar faction has been removed from responsibility due to controversy. Earlier this year, Dhananjay Munde had to resign when his close aide Valmik Karad was named as the main accused in the Santosh Deshmukh murder case.

The latest reshuffle is being considered a big step towards saving the image of the government and fixing the accountability of the ministers.