On Wednesday, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra cabinet approved the renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv. Additionally, the future Navi Mumbai international airport would be named after the late farmer leader DB Patil.
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 central Maharashtra, is a sensitive issue for the beleaguered Sena that is facing one of its worst crisis in the wake of a rebellion by disgruntled leader Eknath Shinde leading to a latest crisis from the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MV) coalition.
The BJP had frequently reminded the Sena of its own previous demand to rename Aurangabad, which took its name from Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, after the Shiv Sena left its decades-long ties with the party and joined up with the Congress and NCP to create the MVA government.
According to reports, Thackeray told his coalition allies that although they had supported him and collaborated with him, his own people had deserted him.
“The CM said that because of our cooperation with him, he will also expect future cooperation from us. After the cabinet meeting in Mumbai, Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Sunil Kedar said, “He also said that he will behave with us in a similar manner.
But it appears that these demands were ignored. The demand to rename Navi Mumbai Airport after DB Patil had received support from the Congress. Balasaheb Thackeray, the late founder of Sena, was proposed as the name for the Navi Mumbai airport by the state planning body CIDCO.
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