NEW DELHI, June 29: Even as its fate hangs in balance amidst a mutiny by a majority of the Shiv Sena members of the state Assembly, the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi cabinet in Maharashtra led by the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday approved renaming of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv.
The move apparently was an attempt to refurbish the image of Shiv Sena in the face of continuous onslaught by the rebels led by the deposed minister Eknath Shinde questioning the “Hindutva” credentials of the Thackeray faction of the Sena which was supposed to be the “true keepers of the party’s Maratha-Hindutva ideology.”
Sambhaji was the eldest son of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Maratha king after whom the party is named. Aurangabad got its name in the 17th century when Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was the region’s governor. Renaming it after Sambhaji, whose execution was ordered by Aurangzeb, has for long been the party’s demand.
Osmanabad, named after Hyderabad’s last ruler Mir Osman Ali Khan, derives its new name, Dharashiv, from 6th-century caves near the city. The timing is crucial as the rebels led by Shinde are challenging Team Thackeray on the plank of ideology.
The cabinet also cleared a proposal to name the upcoming Navi Mumbai International airport after the late DB Patil, the leaders of the Project Affected People of Raigad and Thane district.
(Manas Dasgupta)