Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | After LS poll defeat, sacked IAS officer Puja Khedkar's father enters poll fray

Pune: After unsuccessfully contesting the Lok Sabha elections, Dilip Khedkar, father of sacked probationary IAS officer Puja Khedkar, has now entered the assembly poll fray as he will contest as an independent candidate from Shevgaon seat in Ahilyanagar district.

This time, he has not mentioned any information related to his wife in the election affidavit, contrary to what he had done during the Lok Sabha polls.

He filed his assembly poll nomination form on Tuesday, the last day of the process.

Khedkar, a former government official, was one of the accused in the case of alleged criminal intimidation along with his wife Manorama Khedkar, who allegedly showed a gun to a farmer in Pune district over a land dispute in June 2023.

During this year's Lok Sabha elections, Khedkar had mentioned the information related to his wife Manorama in the election affidavit, alluding that they were not separated as claimed by his daughter Puja Khedkar. This time, however, he did not mention the details of his wife in the 'spouse' section.

Puja Khedkar is alleged to have misused the OBC non-creamy layer quota in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) by falsely claiming that her parents were separated.

In July, a sessions court in Pune granted anticipatory bail to Dilip Khedkar in the criminal intimidation case.

During the Lok Sabha polls, Khedkar had contested as a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate from Ahmednagar constituency, but failed to win.

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 accused of cheating and wrongly availing Other Backward Classes (OBC) and disability quota benefits to ensure her selection in the service. The central government, vide order dated September 6, 2024, discharged her from the Indian Administrative Service under Rule 12 of IAS (Probation) Rules, 1954.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had on July 31 cancelled her candidature and debarred her from future exams.