Cabinet renames Aurangabad as 'Sambhajinagar' & Osmanabad as 'Dharashiv'
The decision to change the name of Aurangabad, is a sensitive issue for the Sena that is facing one of its worst crisis in wake of a rebellion by Eknath Shinde leading to a latest crisis from ruling MVA coalition.
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Mumbai, June 30: In what turned out to be Uddhav Thackeray's final move to claim the Maratha-Hindutva ideology, the Maharashtra cabinet has approved the renaming of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv.
Osmanabad, named after Hyderabad's last ruler Mir Osman Ali Khan, derives its new name, Dharashiv, from 6th-century caves near the city. This, too, has been on the Sena's agenda for a while.
After the Shiv Sena had severed its ties with the BJP and joined hands with the Congress and NCP to form the MVA government, BJP had often reminded the Sena of its own old demand to rename Aurangabad that derived its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
The decisions were taken during a key cabinet meeting that was held at a time when the fate of the Thackeray's coalition government was being discussed in the Supreme Court where an order of governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for a floor test on Thursday was challenged by the Shiv Sena's chief whip Sunil Prabhu.
The decision to change the name of Aurangabad, a historical city in Maharashtra, is a sensitive issue for the Sena that is facing one of its worst crisis in wake of a rebellion by rebel leader Eknath Shinde leading to a latest crisis from ruling MVA coalition.
Sambhaji was the eldest son of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Maratha king after whom the party is named. He was killed on orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who gave Aurangabad its name in 17th century. Renaming it after Sambhaji has for long been Shiv Sena's demand.
After the Shiv Sena had severed its ties with the BJP and joined hands with the Congress and NCP to form the MVA government, BJP had often reminded the Sena of its own old demand to rename Aurangabad that derived its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.