Maharashtra: Centre approves renaming of Aurangabad, Osmanabad; Devendra Fadnavis thanks PM Modi and Amit Shah

Mumbai: The Central government on Friday approved the renaming of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities. Aurangabad has been renamed Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad will be known as Dharashiv.

maharashtra: centre approves renaming of aurangabad, osmanabad; devendra fadnavis thanks pm modi, amit shah

The proposal to rename the cities was approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis shared the news on his official Twitter handle. He welcomed the Centre’s decision to approve the proposal. He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modu and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Fadnavis also tweet a copy of the Centre’s letter. The Central government said that it had “no” objection to renaming both cities. Fadnavis said that the Maharashtra government headed by Eknath Shinde did what was promised.

Tweet by Devendra Fadnavis:

The demand to rename both cities had been raised several times by Hindu right-wing organisations in the past. Notably, Aurangabad derives its name from the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, while Osmanabad was named after a 20th-century ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad.

Chhatrapati Sambhaji is the eldest son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He was the second ruler of the Maratha state. Sambhaji Maharaj was executed on Aurangzeb’s orders in 1689. Meanwhile, Dharashiv is the name of a cave complex near Osmanabad. It dates back to the 8th century as per some scholars.