In a hurried series of decisions taken in the cabinet meeting on 29th June 2022, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray approved renaming two cities Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv respectively. The New Mumbai International Airport was also named after late mass leader DB Patil. It will now be called Late DB Patil International Airport. The cabinet meeting was held when the Supreme Court started hearing a petition against the floor test tomorrow ordered by the governor.
Cabinet ministers and Congress leaders Varsha Gaikwad and Aslam Sheikh left the meeting in the middle and walked out. Though they have not cleared the reasons, it is being speculated that they took the step because of the Hindutva agenda Uddhav Thackeray suddenly started working on. The decision to rename the cities is seen as an attempt to square the Hindutva issue Eknath Shinde claims he rebelled for.
#LIVE on #UddhavFloorTest | Two Congress MVA ministers left CM Uddhav’s Cabinet meeting after mention of ‘Hindutva’, sources say; Tune in for #BREAKING updates on the Supreme Court’s hearing on the floor test here – https://t.co/46Iqhwo5VC pic.twitter.com/fSM0tJ9mBw
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The Uddhav Thackeray cabinet took other administrative decisions and sanctioned funds for some schemes and projects but the most talked-about were the decisions to rename the cities. Aurangabad and Osmanabad are the district places in the Marathwada region. Aurangabad is now renamed Sambhaji Nagar after Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. Earlier it was named after Mughal tyrant Aurangzeb. Osmanabad will now be named Dharashiv – its actual name. When the Marathwada region was ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad, during that period, Dharashiv was named Osmanabad after Mir Osman Ali Khan – one of the Nizam rulers. Now Osmanabad will get back its original identity Dharashiv.
Some Congress members reportedly demanded to rename Pune as Jijapur or Jijau Nagar after Rajmata Jijabai – Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s mother. But this remaning was not done.
It is notable that Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari has called for a floor test in the state assembly. Maha Vikas Aghadi has challenged it in Supreme Court through Sunil Prabhu who was the chief whip of Shiv Sena in the assembly. The Supreme Court is currently listening to the arguments of both sides.
At the same time, the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who were in Guwahati have already left the city. Around 50 MLAs of the Maharashtra assembly out of which 40 MLAs are from Shiv Sena, who were staying at Hotel Radisson Blu in Guwahati, boarded a chartered flight from SpiceJet after paying a visit to Kamakhya temple. The Eknath Shinde camp will reach Goa, and they move to Mumbai for the floor test tomorrow. However, this move is dependent on the court’s decision in the ongoing hearing.
