Ramdas Athawale breaks ranks with ally BJP, opposes renaming Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar

Breaking ranks with ally BJP's position, RPI (A) chief and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale expressed firm opposition to renaming Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar. Earlier, MVA constituent Congress has stirred a row by making it clear that it does not believe in changing names of places. Maintaining that the city has its own distinct cultural identity, he warned that his party will start an agitation if the Maharashtra government officially changes its name to Sambhajinagar. 

Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Monday maintained that the name change is "acceptable at all". Moreover, he revealed that BJP will pass a resolution in favour of the name change when the party comes to power in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation. 

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On January 2, Shiv Sena attempted to downplay the rift within the MVA. Speaking to the media on January 2, Sena MP Sanjay Raut mentioned that changing Aurangabad's name was a mere formality as party founder Balasaheb Thackeray had himself renamed it to Sambhajinagar many years ago. At the same time, he stressed that the three-party alliance in Maharashtra would mutually resolve this issue.

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Demand for renaming Aurangabad

Aurangabad was a prominent Mughal city in the Deccan region and derives its name from the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. On the other hand, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was tortured to death by Aurangzeb. In 1995, a proposal was passed in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to rename the city as Sambhajinagar. However, it was challenged by Congress corporator Mushtaq Ahmed in the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court. As his plea was rejected by the HC, Ahmed moved the Supreme Court which stayed the process of renaming the city. 

Incidentally, it was Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who had publicly promised to rename Aurangabad in August 2015. Welcoming the New Delhi Municipal Council’s decision to rename Aurangzeb Road in Delhi as Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, Thackeray called for Aurangabad to be renamed as Sambhajinagar. He assured that requisite resolutions would be passed in this regard as the Sena was in power both at the Centre and in Maharashtra.

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