Honourable Advocate Manikrao Shivajirao Kokate is an Indian politician from Nashik District in Maharashtra. He is currently serving as a Member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Sinnar constituency, representing the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Honourable Advocate Kokate has been elected five times from the Sinnar Assembly constituency.
 

Born on 26th September 1957 in Nashik, Bombay State (now Maharashtra), Honourable Advocate Manikrao initially joined the Indian National Congress (INC), but in 1999, he switched to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which Sharad Pawar founded. 
 

He was denied a ticket from the NCP for the Sinnar Assembly Constituency, prompting him to join the Shiv Sena, where he won the seat in both the 1999 and 2004 Maharashtra Assembly elections. Later, he joined the Congress party after aligning with the rebellion led by Narayan Rane, and he won the Sinnar seat again in the 2009 Assembly elections.
 

In 2014, Honourable Advocate Manikrao switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he contested as an independent candidate from the Nashik Lok Sabha seat but was defeated by the Shiv Sena candidate. However, in 2019, he returned to the NCP and won the Sinnar Assembly seat for the fourth time by a narrow margin.
 

In the 2024 Assembly elections, Honourable Advocate Kokate secured a significant victory, defeating Uday Sangale, the candidate from NCP's Sharad Pawar faction. Apart from his political career, he is also a farmer by profession.
 

In his current role, Honourable Advocate Kokate serves as the Cabinet Minister of Agriculture in the Third Fadnavis ministry of the Maharashtra government, having assumed office on 15 December 2024. He is also the Guardian Minister for Akola.