Dilip Khedkar, the father of sacked probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar, has entered the fray for the Maharashtra Assembly elections as an independent candidate from the Shevgaon seat in Ahilyanagar district. This follows his unsuccessful bid in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year.
Khedkar filed his nomination on Tuesday, the last day for submissions. In a notable change from his Lok Sabha candidacy, he did not disclose any information about his wife, Manorama Khedkar, in his election affidavit.
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Dilip Khedkar, a former government official, was among those accused in a case of alleged criminal intimidation after his wife reportedly brandished a gun at a farmer over a land dispute in Pune district in June 2023.
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During the Lok Sabha elections, Khedkar had referred to his marital status in the affidavit, suggesting they were not separated, a claim contradicted by his daughter, Puja.
Puja Khedkar is accused of misusing the OBC non-creamy layer quota in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) by falsely claiming her parents were separated. In July, a sessions court in Pune granted anticipatory bail to Dilip Khedkar in the criminal intimidation case.
In the Lok Sabha elections, he ran as a candidate for the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi from the Ahmednagar constituency but did not win.
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Talking about Khedkar’s flip-flop on his marital status, RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar said on X, “During the Lok Sabha elections, they (Dilip Khedkar and Manorama Khedkar) were married, but when the issue of caste-certificate was involved, they showed themselves as separated and now again Khedkar has shown himself as separated.”
Puja Khedkar was discharged from the Indian Administrative Service in September 2024 under Rule 12 of IAS (Probation) Rules,
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