Maharashtra: Eknath Shinde Cabinet Approves Aurangabad, Osmanabad Renaming

On Saturday, July 16, the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government accorded cabinet approval to rename Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv, reported news agency PTI.

The renaming decision was undertaken in the earlier MVA government's last cabinet meeting headed by the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, just before he resigned. 

The next day when Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis were sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, they claimed that the Thackeray-led cabinet's decision to rename the cities was illegal because it was undertaken after the governor had asked it to prove a majority in the state legislative assembly. 

While in the last month's cabinet meeting chaired by Thackeray, Aurangabad was renamed Sambhajinagar, on Saturday, the Shinde government added "Chhatrapati" before it.

Presently, Shinde and Fadnavis are the only members in the cabinet because the expansion is still awaited. 

According to the report, a statement from the Chief Minister's Office mentioned that the minutes of the June 29 cabinet meeting are approved by the new government at the cabinet meeting conducted on Saturday. It added that the minutes of the meeting had come for approval before the new government asked the administration to re-submit the proposal.

It reportedly added that the fresh proposal approved by the cabinet will be sent to the Union, post which the cities renaming will be undertaken at the divisional, district, taluka, municipal corporation and council levels.

Additionally, the cabinet also approved the decision to name the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport after D B Patil, a farmer leader. The same decision was taken in the Thackeray-headed cabinet earlier. The CMO statement shared that the administration was told to submit a new proposal about the airport's name which was approved on Saturday.

In the midst of this, the Shiv Sena reportedly conducted a protest in Aurangabad mentioning that the Shinde government's decision to accord cabinet approval to the decision which was previously taken by the Thackeray-led government was meant only for taking credit.