India, Feb. 21 -- In a jolt to the Mahayuti government and the NCP led by deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, a Nashik district court on Thursday sentenced Maharashtra agriculture minister and NCP leader Manikrao Kokate and his brother Vijay Kokate to two years of imprisonment for acquiring a government-quota flat by submitting fake documents. Although Kokate succeeded in getting bail within hours, there will be uncertainty about his position as a minister and MLA till he gets a stay order on the sentence from a higher court. The opposition has demanded that he resign immediately.

The NCP and Mahayuti government are already facing trouble on account of another NCP minister-Dhananjay Munde, whose close aide Walmik Karad has been arrested in...