Aurangabad city renamed Sambhajinagar, Osmanabad city

The state cabinet on Wednesday approved the renaming of Aurangabad city as Sambhajinagar and that of Osmanabad city as Dharashiv, as the fate of the Maharashtra government hangs in balance.

The decision on renaming the historic central Maharashtra city of Aurangabad came even as the Shiv Sena, which heads the ruling MVA coalition, is facing a rebellion by most of its MLAs.

The naming of the upcoming Navi Mumbai international airport was approved by the cabinet meeting chaired by the beleaguered Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

The CIDCO, the state planning agency, had earlier proposed to name Navi Mumbai Airport after the late Balasaheb Thackeray, founder of the Shiv Sena. After the BJP broke off its alliance with the BJP and joined the Congress and NCP to form MVA government, the BJP had often reminded the Sena of its old demand to rename Aurangabad, which derived its name from Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

The Congress, which is a junior partner in the MVA government, has demanded that Pune city be named as Jijau Nagar, after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's mother, and Mumbai Trans Harbour link between Sewree and Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai be named after former chief minister A R Antulay. These demands were apparently not considered. Congress had backed the demand to name Navi Mumbai Airport after D B Patil.