Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra since December 2024, when he assumed the charge, appears to be a man on mission. He - who also holds Home Department - is appointing result-giving officers at the key positions. The latest such appointment was witnessed in the posting of Mumbai Police Commissioner. The Chief Minister picked 1994-batch IPS officer Deven Bharti for the position. 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 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’. On December 9 last year, just four days into his latest tenure, he appointed Shrikar Pardeshi as his Secretary. A 2001-batch IAS officer, Pardeshi 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. On December 14 last year, he appointed 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).