Will Maharashtra CM rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad, Shiv Sena Questions

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Days after the Uttar Pradesh government renamed Allahabad and Faizabad to Prayagraj and Ayodhya, the Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis when his government would rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts in the state.

The Shiv Sena is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ally in the Maharashtra government. “Yogi Adityanath has renamed Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj,” Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said on Twitter. “When will Chief Minister Devendra ji rename Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv Nagar?”

Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande on Thursday said the party’s demand to rename Osmanabad and Aurangabad is not new. “This is our long-standing demand and this has been raised several times but Congress and NCP opposed it to appease the Muslim voters,” Kayande told ANI.
On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath announced that Faizabad district will be renamed Ayodhya.

Last month, the state Cabinet had approved a proposal to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj. In June, Adityanath’s government had renamed the Mughalsarai railway station as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay station.

Hours after Adityanath’s announcement, the Gujarat government said it will consider changing Ahmedabad’s name to Karnavati. “People still have a feeling that Ahmedabad should be renamed Karnavati,” Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had said. “If we get the required support to overcome the legal hurdles, we are always ready to change the name of the city.”

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Thursday said the government is contemplating changing Ahmedabad’s name to Karnavati. “The talks for this have been going on since a long time,” Rupani said, according to ANI. “Concrete steps will be taken after looking at it from legal and all other angles. We will think about it in the time to come.”