Sacked IAS officer Khedkar’s father contests Maharashtra assembly polls after LS election defeat

Puna: After unsuccessfully contesting the Lok Sabha elections, Dilip Khedkar, father of retired IAS officer and probationer Pooja Khedkar, has now entered the fray for the Assembly elections as he will contest as an independent candidate from Shevgaon seat in Ahilyanagar district. This time, he did not mention any information related to his wife in the election affidavit, contrary to what he did during the Lok Sabha elections.

On Tuesday, the last day of the process, he submitted his application for nomination to parliament. Khedkar, a former government official, was one of the accused in a case of alleged criminal intimidation along with his wife Manorama Khedkar, who allegedly pointed a gun at a farmer in Pune district over a land dispute in June 2023.

During this year’s Lok Sabha elections, Khedkar mentioned information related to his wife Manorama in an election affidavit, implying that they were not divorced as claimed by his daughter Pooja Khedkar. However, this time he did not mention the details of his wife in the “wife” section.

Pooja Khedkar allegedly misused the OBC quota for non-creamy sections in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) by falsely claiming that her parents were divorced.

In July, a Pune court granted bail to Dilip Khedkar in a criminal intimidation case. During the Lok Sabha elections, Khedkar contested as the Vanchita Bahujan Agadi (VBA) candidate from the Ahmednagar constituency but failed to win.

Speaking about Khedkar losing his marital status, RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar told X, “During the Lok Sabha elections, they (Dilip Khedkar and Manorama Khedkar) were married, but when the question of caste came up, they showed themselves divided. , and now Khedkar again showed himself divided.”

Pooja Khedkar was accused of cheating and misusing Other Backward Classes (OBC) and disability quota benefits to secure her selection for the service. She was dismissed from the Indian Administrative Service under Rule 12 of the IAS (Probationary) Rules, 1954 by Central Government order dated 6 September 2024. On July 31, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) canceled her candidature and disqualified her from future examinations.