Senior IAS officer Ashwini Bhide on Tuesday became the first woman commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
The 1995 batch officer, known for her methodical approach in implementing Mumbai metro railway network project, replaced Bhushan Gagrani, who retired on Tuesday. Gagrani had been BMC commissioner since 2024.
Bhide, who was additional chief secretary in the CM office, was front runner in the race to become BMC chief. The other IAS officers in the race were Aseem Gupta, Sanjay Mukherjee and Milind Mhaiskar. Bhide is junior to them all and hence will get a full three years term in the office.
Bhide is a chosen bureaucrat of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and it will be interesting to see how she approaches various development works and projects. Interestingly, the BJP has its mayor for the first time in Mumbai. The mayor too is a woman – Ritu Tawade.
Additional chief secretary Aseem Gupta was the chosen candidate of deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde for BMC commissioner post. But Fadnavis convinced Shinde to back Bhide. Later, Bhide too met Shinde before a formal announcement about her appointment was made.