'Not rummy, solitaire': Maharashtra minister Manikrao Kokate blames aide, YouTube ads; takes shot at NCP(SP)'s Rohit Pawar - watch

NEW DELHI: Maharashtra agriculture minister Manikrao Kokate has dismissed NCP(SP) Rohit Pawar's claim that he was playing rummy in the assembly, clarifying that it was solitaire, an app he said may have been downloaded by a staffer, and had actually opened YouTube to check on lower house proceedings."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," he said."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 added.

The explanation came in after Pawar shared a video of Kokate which showed the minister playing a mobile game inside the assembly."Since the Nationalist faction in power can’t do anything without consulting the BJP, countless agricultural issues remain unresolved. Even as eight farmers in the state take their own lives daily, it seems the Agriculture Minister, with nothing better to do, has time to play rummy.Will these wayward ministers and the government hear the desperate plea of farmers demanding crop insurance, loan waivers, and price support: 'Come to the fields of poor farmers sometime, Maharaj'?" Pawar said in a post on X.

Calling the video "shameful", Congress said, "This is Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Manikrao Kokate.In Maharashtra, around 8 farmers are taking their own lives every day, and he’s sitting in the assembly playing games on his mobile. Farmers are being ruined by financial hardship and mounting debt, but he has no concern or care for them."