Newsmaker | Why Ashwini Bhide is one among Maharashtra’s most well-known officers, and now amongst its most influential | Political Pulse Information

Many earlier principal secretaries to CMs in Maharashtra have gone on to turn into chief secretary, the best rank within the state forms.

With Bhide’s appointment, Devendra Fadnavis seems to be sending a message that infrastructure, which was one of many BJP’s key marketing campaign planks, could be among the many prime priorities in his second time period as CM. Bhide has been on the helm of a few of the most bold and high-profile infrastructure tasks in Maharashtra – from overseeing the town’s first underground Metro line to managing the expansive coastal highway mission alongside the Arabian Sea.

In one other affirmation of this, Bhide will proceed to carry her present cost as Managing Director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Company (MMRCL) for now.

A local of Sangli, Bhide is a 1995-batch IAS officer married to her batchmate and former bureaucrat Dr Satish Bhide. It was throughout her and her husband’s stint in Nagpur (2000-2003) that Bhide first got here in touch with Devendra Fadnavis, who was then a first-time MLA and Mayor of Nagpur.

She served as CEO of the Nagpur Zilla Parishad earlier than changing into deputy secretary to successive Maharashtra governors between 2004 and 2008. It was in 2008 that she joined the large league along with her appointment as Joint Metropolitan Commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Area Improvement Authority (MMRDA).

The MMRDA oversaw some main city infrastructure tasks round this time, together with Jap Freeway, Milan subway flyover, Mumbai’s skywalks, and the Mithi river clean-up. Many of those tasks required relocation of individuals, and regardless of working into political ire at occasions, she was recognised for her means to deal with such delicate issues with diplomacy.

In 2014, when Fadnavis grew to become CM for the primary time, he roped Bhide again into the infrastructure sector, ending her one-year stint as Secretary of the Faculty Schooling Division. She was amongst a gaggle of officers he handpicked on the time.

In January 2015, Bhide was appointed to the highest submit within the MMRCL, which was a three way partnership between the Maharashtra authorities and Centre to assemble a completely underground 33.5-km Metro hall in one of many world’s most densely packed cities.

It was then that Bhide bumped into the most important controversy of her profession, involving the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (then united), which was part of the state authorities.

Uddhav’s son Aaditya, who was looking for a political house for himself, led opposition to plans for a Metro automotive shed within the Aarey Colony inexperienced belt space of Mumbai. Bhide’s frequent social media posts and tv interviews backing the Aarey plan as a part of which 2,141 timber could be minimize to construct the Metro automotive shed additional added to the Sena’s ire. As her superstar rose, so did the backlash towards her from not simply Sena ranks but in addition environmentalists, with opponents accusing her of doing Fadnavis’s bidding.

When the BJP couldn’t type a authorities after the 2019 Meeting elections because the Sena walked out on it, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) authorities that got here to energy scrapped the Aarey automotive shed plan and shunted out Bhide.

Nevertheless, in what was seen as a affirmation of her competence, she was introduced again inside three months by the MVA authorities and made Further Municipal Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC). The key tasks she dealt with on this stint included Mumbai’s bold coastal highway.

After the MVA authorities fell, and was changed by the BJP-Eknath Shinde Sena, Bhide was reappointed inside 13 days as head of the Metro company, whilst she continued in her BMC submit. She was finally transferred out of the BMC forward of this yr’s Lok Sabha elections, on the Election Fee’s request.

Bhide remained on the helm of the MMRCL, although. And proving the Mahayuti authorities’s religion in her proper, she delivered a accomplished portion of the underground Metro line – simply earlier than the Meeting elections.