Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis is said to have done no favour to his own image by transferring on Monday the senior-most serving IAS officer Medha Gadgil out of the state secretariat. The move is seen heavily tiled by extraneous consideration of Medha's husband, Anant, being in the Congress Party. 

Medha, who still has six months of service left, has now been posted as the chairperson-cum-managing director of Maharashtra State Financial Corporation, which is considered a side posting.

This is the second blow to her otherwise distinguished career since Fadnavis became the CM in 2014. In April 2018, Dinesh Kumar Jain (also 1983 batch) had superseded her to become the state’s chief secretary, after which Gadgil had gone on a month-long leave before returning to work. Despite being the senior-most IAS officer, Gadgil was also kept out of the Civil Services Board.

Kishor Nimbalkar, an IAS officer who is 20 batches junior to Gadgil, has been named her successor in the Relief and Rehabilitation Department.

Her transfer comes at a time when drought relief work is being executed on a large scale in the state.

With Medha out of the state secretariat, Jain is now the senior-most officer in the state secretariat. Last June, Fadnavis had moved out former Additional Chief Secretary, Sudhir Srivastava (1983 batch), who was senior to Jain and appointed him the chairman of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. Meanwhile, Dr. Nidhi Pandey (2001), who was previously the MD of the state financial corporation, has been posted as the Member-Secretary of the 5th Maharashtra Financial Corporation.