One of Maharashtra’s most well-known bureaucrats, Ashwini Bhide hit another high on Friday, with the Devendra Fadnavis government naming her as the new Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. Few women have held this post in the state, seen as one of the most influential, with CMs picking their confidants for it. Bhide, 54, replaces Brijesh Singh, an IPS officer who was appointed to the post by the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government last year, making him the first police officer to become Principal Secretary to the CM. Many previous principal secretaries to CMs in Maharashtra have gone on to become chief secretary, the highest rank in the state bureaucracy. With Bhide’s appointment, Devendra Fadnavis appears to be sending a message that infrastructure, which was one of the BJP’s key campaign planks, would be among the top priorities in his second term as CM. Bhide has been at the helm of some of the most ambitious and high-profile infrastructure projects in Maharashtra – from overseeing the city’s first underground Metro line to managing the expansive coastal road project along the Arabian Sea. In another affirmation of this, Bhide will continue to hold her current charge as Managing Director of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL) for now. A native of Sangli, Bhide is a 1995-batch IAS officer married to her batchmate and former bureaucrat Dr Satish Bhide. It was during her and her husband’s stint in Nagpur (2000-2003) that Bhide first came in contact with Devendra Fadnavis, who was then a first-time MLA and Mayor of Nagpur. She served as CEO of the Nagpur Zilla Parishad before becoming deputy secretary to successive Maharashtra governors between 2004 and 2008. It was in 2008 that she joined the big league with her appointment as Joint Metropolitan Commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The MMRDA oversaw some major urban infrastructure projects around this time, including Eastern Freeway, Milan subway flyover, Mumbai’s skywalks, and the Mithi river clean-up. Many of these projects required relocation of people, and despite running into political ire at times, she was recognised for her ability to handle such sensitive matters with diplomacy. In 2014, when Fadnavis became CM for the first time, he roped Bhide back into the infrastructure sector, ending her one-year stint as Secretary of the School Education Department. She was among a group of officials he handpicked at the time. In January 2015, Bhide was appointed to the top post in the MMRCL, which was a joint venture between the Maharashtra government and Centre to construct a fully underground 33.5-km Metro corridor in one of the world’s most densely packed cities. It was then that Bhide ran into the biggest controversy of her career, involving the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (then united), which was a part of the state government. Uddhav’s son Aaditya, who was seeking a political space for himself, led opposition to plans for a Metro car shed in the Aarey Colony green belt area of Mumbai. Bhide’s frequent social media posts and television interviews backing the Aarey plan as part of which 2,141 trees would be cut to build the Metro car shed further added to the Sena’s ire. As her celebrity rose, so did the backlash against her from not just Sena ranks but also environmentalists, with opponents accusing her of doing Fadnavis’s bidding. When the BJP could not form a government after the 2019 Assembly elections as the Sena walked out on it, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government that came to power scrapped the Aarey car shed plan and shunted out Bhide. However, in what was seen as a confirmation of her competence, she was brought back within three months by the MVA government and made Additional Municipal Commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The major projects she handled in this stint included Mumbai's ambitious coastal road. After the MVA government fell, and was replaced by the BJP-Eknath Shinde Sena, Bhide was reappointed within 13 days as head of the Metro corporation, even as she continued in her BMC post. She was eventually transferred out of the BMC ahead of this year’s Lok Sabha elections, at the Election Commission’s request. Bhide remained at the helm of the MMRCL, though. And proving the Mahayuti government’s faith in her right, she delivered a completed portion of the underground Metro line – just before the Assembly elections.
