Since Devendra Fadnavis took over as Maharashtra Chief Minister in December last year following the Mahayuti’s landslide victory, he has been a man on a mission, appointing bureaucrats seen as close to him in key positions, even at the risk of upsetting his alliance partners. The latest such appointment came on Wednesday, when the CM picked 1994-batch IPS officer Deven Bharti to succeed Vivek Phansalkar as Mumbai Police Commissioner. Bharti has worked on many high profile cases, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and is seen to have a good rapport with Fadnavis. In the first meeting after returning to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), Fadnavis had made it clear to the bureaucracy that his government’s roadmap needed to be implemented in the given timeline while also telling his officers that they would “perish” if they did not “perform”. In line with these directives, Fadnavis has been appointing his trusted lieutenants in key government positions. One of his first appointments came on December 9 last year, just four days into his latest tenure as CM, when he appointed Shrikar Pardeshi as his secretary. A 2001-batch IAS officer, Pardeshi is seen to be close to Fadnavis and worked with him even when Fadnavis was the Deputy CM between 2022 and 2024 in the Eknath Shinde Cabinet. Pardeshi earlier served in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) between 2014 and 2020. Yet another surprise move days into Fadnavis’s tenure on December 14 last year was the appointment of 1995-batch IAS officer Ashiwni Bhide as the principal secretary in the Secretariat. She had served as the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation chief during the NDA’s first term (2014-2019). However, some of these moves appear to have created tensions with ally Shiv Sena, whose chief Shinde has been sulking over various issues since he had to give up the CM’s chair. The apparent reason for not appointing some officials recommended by mnisters as their personal assistants or officers on special duty is that Fadnavis is determined to keep out “corrupt and controversial” bureaucrats. “As the CM, he has the right to make key appointments. We have no right or reason to question him as he holds the Home portfolio as well. However, since there is a coalition government in place, we expect him to give space to alliance partners in making appointments in departments held by the Sena and NCP,” a Shiv Sena minister said on the condition of anonymity. The BJP and NCP, on the other hand, defended Fadnavis’s moves. “Good governance is our promise and for achieving it, the CM has advocated transparency and accountability. These steps are necessary to fulfil our promise,” state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said. A senior NCP minister, requesting anonymity, said the phenomenon of appointing trusted people in key positions is hardly new. “Even during the Congress-(undivided) NCP tenure, successive CMs exercised their rights in appointing officers of their choice. After the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) came to power, there were a couple of instances where then CM Uddhav Thackeray replaced officers who were perceived to be close to Fadnavis. There is nothing right or wrong in it. Every minister has an individual assessment of officers based on their work and personal equation,” the minister said. Earlier this month too, Fadnavis created flutter in bureaucratic corridors after he brought back retired IAS officer Praveen Pardeshi and appointed him as his economic advisor – a post which did not exist hitherto – with the rank of Minister of State. Praveen, a 1985-batch IAS officer, was seen to be Fadnavis’s right-hand man and had earned accolades as a young Collector for his work in the aftermath of the Latur earthquake in the 1990s when a Congress government led by Sharad Pawar was in power. During Fadnavis’s first term as CM, Praveen served as the principal secretary in the CMO. In 2015, he was a part of the delegation led by Fadnavis that held discussions on foreign investment and industry with delegates from the US. He also accompanied the CM to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in 2018. Currently, Praveen holds several other key posts. He is the Chief Executive Officer of the state government-run think tank, Maharashtra Institution for Transformation, the Chairman of the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and the co-chairperson of the state’s apex governing committee on data. Fadnavis’s preference for trusted officers was also visible during his stint as Deputy CM, when he held the Home portfolio as well. The government had at the time appointed IPS officer Rashmi Shukla, who was sidelined during the MVA tenure, as the Director General of Police (DGP). While she was sent on leave ahead of the Assembly polls, following complaints by the Opposition, she returned days after the results were declared, bringing the Mahayuti back to power.
