Mumbai: Capital markets veteran Anish Damania received an invitation from the Devendra Fadnavis government earlier this month to be a part of its team of financial and economic stalwarts at its think tank Maharashtra Institution for Transformation (MITRA), an offer that he accepted.
The day he announced the decision to accept the offer, his wife Anjali Damania criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Fadnavis on their past stands on Ajit Pawar and his alleged involvement in the irrigation scam.
This is the curious case of the Damania couple. The wife has kept the state government on its toes, levelling a series of corruption allegations against its ministers that have also resulted in cabinet resignations, while the husband will now be working directly with a retired officer known to be a close confidant of Fadnavis. And both are unperturbed about each other’s positions.
“These are two different things. I am super proud of him as my husband. I must say he is contributing in his way and I am contributing in mine,” Anjali told ThePrint.
“There is no chance that this will impact my work. He is only an adviser for capital markets, which is his expertise. We are not going to take any salary or perks from the government. We are the type that even if our own kin would do anything, we would expose that. So, there is no way this will come in my way,” she asserted.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a BJP leader said Anish’s appointment has nothing to do with Anjali and her work.
“Anish Damania is a talented person in the field of finance and purely for this reason he is appointed. If anyone is making any other connection, I feel that is wrong,” the leader said.
The appointment of Anish, MD-Group Relationships at JM Financial, has ruffled feathers within the ruling Mahayuti. While Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) leaders have been Anjali’s target often, she hasn’t spared leaders of the other two parties of the ruling alliance either.
सिंचन घोटाळ्याची दाबून टाकलेली चौकशी पुन्हा सुरू करण्याची हिम्मत सरकार दाखवणार का?
“या घोटाले के गॅरंटी को देश स्वीकार करेगा ?” म्हणणारे आपले प्रधानमंत्री काय
आणि
“सिंचन घोटाळ्या मधे अजित दादांची अवस्था मी काय करणार …,. तर अमच सरकार आल्या नंतर , अजितदादा चक्की पिसिंग,… pic.twitter.com/lbwSHdMLV2
— Mrs Anjali Damania (@anjali_damania) September 12, 2025
Speaking to ThePrint, NCP (Ajit Pawar) MLC Amol Mitkari hinted that his party was not entirely comfortable with the appointment. He wondered if Anjali levelled allegations against NCP leaders just to reap such “benefits”.
“Now in my mind there is one question whether Anjali Damania was a social activist or was she working at the behest of the government. Because in the last few months, she has targeted the NCP, especially Ajit Pawar. So the appointment of her husband raises questions. Looks like she did her work honestly because now she is getting the fruits of it. She is a real disciple of Anna Hazare, it is now proven,” Mitkari said.
MITRA was formed in November 2022 along the lines of the NITI Aayog. The goal of this think tank is to transform Maharashtra into a trillion-dollar economy by 2027. The focus is on 10 sectors out of which mining, group farming, solar energy projects and bio-fuel have been listed as priority sectors.
After Fadnavis became chief minister in Mahayuti 2.0, he removed Ajay Ashar, a close aide of Eknath Shinde, from the board of MITRA earlier this year, and appointed retired officer Praveen Pardeshi as its CEO.
Also Read: How Maharashtra trying to popularise Right to Services Act, brainchild of CM Fadnavis
Anjali Damania & her career
Anjali is known for her anti-corruption campaign against political leaders. For a brief period, she was also a part of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Maharashtra unit in 2015.
She attracted attention when she started exposing alleged irrigation scam in Maharashtra during 2011-12 through a series of RTIs. She hit the headlines when she made allegations of corruption against then deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar over the alleged irrigation scam.
She even made accusations against Nitin Gadkari for his alleged nexus with then Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and various alleged “scams” involving them. She unsuccessfully fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election against Gadkari from the Nagpur seat on an AAP ticket.
Amongst various allegations she made was one was against then BJP minister and stalwart Eknath Khadse in 2017 in connection with alleged Bhosari land scam. She went on a hunger strike demanding Khadse be removed from his post and a probe launched.
More recently, she pressured the Mahayuti government over the murder of Beed sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh earlier this year. NCP leader Dhananjay Munde’s trusted aide Walmik Karad was named the mastermind in the murder case. Anjali conducted a series of press conferences on the matter. Munde had to tender his resignation.
Anjali also raised corruption allegations against state minister Manikrao Kokate, alleging his assets rose from worth Rs 6 crore to Rs 48 crore in six years.
Anish Damania in think tank
Anish has been a finance and investment veteran. He holds multiple degrees, including CA, CS, Cost Accountancy, CFA part 2 and B.Com. He has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of capital markets and investments.
Since March, he has been serving as MD-Group Relationships on global platform at JM Financial. He has also previously worked as the CEO of IDFC bank.
Anjali says Anish, as a representative of his company, got to meet Union Minister Piyush Goyal on 1 July. She said his company only has three people as part of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), and “he (Anish) received an invitation from Piyush Goyal regarding becoming a member of FICCI, which Anish accepted”.
Then he received an invitation from MITRA, which he accepted too. In MITRA, Anish would be working closely with Pardeshi, a trusted aide of Fadnavis.
Anjali addressed a press conference Monday where she said Anish would have no role in government or operations. He will just be an adviser in MITRA, she said.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: Praveen Pardeshi is Fadnavis’s go-to-IAS officer, whose clout has only grown post retirement