The rebranding of the cities of Osmanabad and Aurangabad in Maharashtra as “Dharashiv” and “Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar,” respectively, has been authorized by the Union government.
Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, tweeted the information.
While Osmanabad was given its name in honor of a 20th-century governor of the Hyderabad princely state, Aurangabad takes its name from the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
The second ruler of the Maratha state established by his father was Chhatrapati Sambhaji, the oldest son of the warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. On Aurangzeb’s instructions, Sambhaji Maharaj was put to death in 1689.
According to some researchers, the cave system known as Dharashiv, which is close to Osmanabad, belongs to the eighth century.
Right-wing Hindu organizations had long called for the renaming of the two towns.
Two emails from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the state’s deputy secretary of general administration, dated February 24, were tweeted by Fadnavis.
According to the documents, the Center had no issues with the renaming of these two central Maharashtra cities.
For the choice, Fadnavis praised Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He claimed that the state’s administration, led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, “did what was promised.”
Notably, the last cabinet move of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government, which fell apart last June as a result of Shinde’s uprising against Uddhav Thackeray, was to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.
The decision made by the council was reversed and a new decision was made by the new administration led by Shinde.
