Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked his deputy Ajit Pawar to inform him who will replace his party colleague and convicted sports minister Manikrao Kokate, sources said on Wednesday, in a sign the embattled Cabinet member may lose his post.
Kokate has been convicted and handed a two-year jail term by a Nashik court in a 1995 cheating and forgery case linked to a state government housing scheme.
The minister is a senior leader of the NCP, which is headed by deputy CM Ajit Pawar.
Fadnavis spoke to Pawar after the court ruling and asked him who should be inducted in the Cabinet in Kokate's place, the sources said.
Meanwhile, state NCP president Sunil Tatkare told reporters in New Delhi that he will meet Pawar in Mumbai on Thursday to discuss the issue arising out of Kokate's conviction.
"We follow laws and the Constitution," he said without elaborating.
Earlier in the day, the sports minister moved the Bombay high court, challenging his conviction and two-year jail term in the three-decade-old criminal case.
During hearing on his plea, Kokate's lawyer Aniket Nikam submitted to the HC that the NCP leader, the MLA from Sinnar in Nashik district, was set to lose his ministry following the conviction. -- PTI
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