India, July 31 -- Agriculture minister Manikrao Kokate is likely to remain controversy's child for a prolonged period. A day after he was let off the hook with a stern warning by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, NCP (SP) legislator Rohit Pawar claimed that Kokate was playing the card game on his mobile phone between 18 to 22 minutes in the legislative council, refuting the minister's earlier claim that it was an advertisement which popped up on his mobile screen which took him around 42 seconds to remove.

While Rohit backed his claim stating the facts were mentioned in the "investigation conducted by the state legislature" in the backdrop of the controversy, Jitendra Bhole, secretary of the sta...