Maharashtra Govt Renames Its 2 Districts As Sambhajinagar & Dharashiv

The Maharashtra state cabinet gave its approval to renaming Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv, in the midst of Maharashtra political crisis.

The government of Maharashtra has authorized renaming Aurangabad Sambhajinagar. In light of the uncertainty surrounding the government, the state council also approved giving Osmanabad the new name of Dharashiv.

The Shiv Sena, which leads the governing MVA coalition and is suffering a rebellion by the majority of its MLAs, made its decision on the contentious matter of renaming the historically significant city of Aurangabad in central Maharashtra.

The future Navi Mumbai international airport will be named after the late farmer leader D B Patil, according to the decision of the cabinet meeting presided over by the troubled Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

Interestingly, the Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray’s name was originally intended to be used for the Navi Mumbai airport by the state planning body CIDCO. 

The BJP had frequently reminded the Sena of its own previous demand to rename Aurangabad, which took its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, when the Shiv Sena broke from its alliance with the BJP and joined forces with the Congress and NCP to create the MVA administration.

During the cabinet meeting, the Congress, a junior partner in the MVA government, urged that the city of Pune be renamed Jijau Nagar after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s mother and that the Mumbai Trans Harbour link between Sewree & Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai be given the name of the late A R Antulay, a former chief minister. 

But it appears that these demands were ignored. The request to rename Navi Mumbai Airport after D B Patil had received support from Congress.