Maharashtra CM approves: Renaming Aurangabad as Sambhaji

Maharashtra cabinet approved renaming Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar and also Osmanabad as Dharashiv. It also approved the naming of the coming international airport in Navi Mumbai after DB Patil, a late political worker respected by the project-affected community.

On 29 June, The Maharashtra cabinet, chaired in a meeting by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, accepted the renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar and also Osmanabad city as Dharashiv.

The decision to change the name was by the long-pending demand of Shiv Sena, which is a constituent of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government in the state. 

The Maharashtra state cabinet has also accepted naming the upcoming international airport in Navi Mumbai after Digambar Bapuji Patil, a demand raised by the project-affected people.

Digambar Bapuji Patil, a late Indian politician, and social worker is honored as a local hero by the citizens of Uran, where now Navi Mumbai International Airport will be built. 

The project-affected people had earlier objected to the judgment to name the Navi Mumbai airport after the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Keshav Thackeray.

In the cabinet meeting

The important decisions were taken hours after state Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asked Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray to conduct a floor test in the assembly on June 30.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi sarkar has turned to the Supreme Court against the governor’s instruction to conduct a floor test. After it was informed that ineptitude notification had been equipped to 16 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs. 

On 20 June the political crisis in Maharashtra began when over a dozen Shiv Sena MLAs moved to Surat in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat and were cut off from communication. The Shiv Sena rebels were later shifted to Guwahati in BJP-ruled Assam, as their numbers grew rapidly. 

According to state minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, who is heading the rebel camp, 40 MLA out of 55 party MLAs have supported him.

The half-majority figure in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is 145. The NCP (53), Sena (55), and Congress (44) are now in power. 

The total MLAs are 155. However, with Shiv Sena revolting in ranks, the government may lose the floor test, claim analysts.