Maharashtra: Name change of Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities gets Centre's nod

The Union government has approved the renaming of Maharashtras Aurangabad city as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and that of Osmanabad city as DharashivMaharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis shared the news on TwitterAurangabad derives its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb while Osmanabad was named for a 20th century ruler of the princely state of HyderabadChhatrapati Sambhaji the eldest son of warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was the second ruler of the Maratha state founded by his father Sambhaji Maharaj was executed on Aurangzebs orders in 1689Dharashiv the name of a cave complex near Osmanabad dates back to the 8th century as per some scholarsHindu rightwing organisations had been demanding renaming of the two cities for longAlso Read First phase of Mumbai coastal road likely to be completed by November BMCFadnavis tweeted two letters from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the deputy secretary of the state General Administration Department dated February 24The letters stated that the Centre had no objection to the change in the names of these two central Maharashtra citiesFadnavis thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the decisionThe state government headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde did what was promised he saidNotably to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv was the last cabinet decision of the Shiv SenaNCPCongress government which collapsed last June following Shindes rebellion against Uddhav ThackerayThe new government headed by Shinde scrapped the cabinet decision and took a fresh decisionReacting to news Aurangabad MP and All India MajlisEIttehadul Muslimeen AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel tweeted that they will show their strength for AurangabadAurangabad is was and will always be our city Now wait for our show of strength for Aurangabad A massive morcha for our beloved city Get ready Aurangabadis to defeat these forces BJP playing politics in the name of our city We condemn amp we will fight he tweetedShiv Sena UBT leader Ambadas Danve said the renaming was a victory of Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackerays standDanve leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council tweeted that Thackeray had renamed the city of Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar way back on May 9 1988The name of the person Aurangzeb who broke the temple of Kashi Vishweshwar has been erased he wroteThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever