The renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv, as well as the designation of the new Navi Mumbai international airport in honour of the late farmer leader DB Patil, received approval from the Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday.
The decisions were made at a crucial cabinet meeting that took place as the Supreme Court, where Shiv Sena chief whip Sunil Prabhu was challenging the governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s order for a floor test on Thursday, was debating the future of the Thackeray coalition government, was deliberating whether to uphold the governor’s order.
The beleaguered Sena, which is going through one of its worst crises following a rebellion by disgruntled leader Eknath Shinde that sparked the latest crisis from the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MV) coalition, is sensitive about the decision to change the name of Aurangabad, a historical city in central Maharashtra.
The BJP had frequently reminded the Shiv Sena of its own previous demand to rename Aurangabad, which took its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, after the Sena left its decades-long ties with the party and joined up with the Congress and NCP to create the MVA administration.
