Maharashtra minister ‘caught on wrong foot’! Video of him playing ‘rummy’ in assembly goes viral

Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate has found himself in the middle of a controversy after a video of him playing a game on his mobile phone during the Legislative Assembly went viral on social media. Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader Rohit Pawar, who posted the clip on X, alleged that the minister was playing an online rummy game during the state assembly session. Pawar slammed Kokate and the government over the incident, saying that he has no work and has time to play rummy at a time when the state is grappled with a severe agrarian crisis.

In a post on X, Pawar wrote, “Since the Nationalist faction in power cannot do anything without consulting the BJP, even with countless agricultural issues pending and 8 farmers committing suicide daily in the state, the Agriculture Minister, with nothing else to do, seems to have time to play rummy.”

He further added, “Will these misguided ministers and the government ever hear the desperate plea of farmers demanding crop insurance, loan waivers, and price support: ‘Come to the fields of poor farmers sometimes, Maharaj’?

What did Manikrao Kokate say?

In his defence, Manikrao Kokate said that it is a “solitaire game, not rummy”. He claimed that someone had downloaded the game on his phone he was trying to skip it.

“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...,” he said.

Ministers react

Reacting to the incident, BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said, ”There is no law under which action can be taken against minister Kokate. At best, he will be warned… I had told Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to make a law against such activities, but he said the right is with the Central government.”

Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Kishori Pednekar said, “This is not the first time minister Kokate has been caught on the wrong foot. Earlier, too, he was found making irresponsible statements. The way he is behaving is nothing but an insult to democracy.”