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Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde
– Photo: Amar Ujala
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The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government has issued a notification changing the names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively. The notification issued by the Revenue Department on Friday evening said that the suggestions and objections sought a few months ago have been considered and it has been decided to change the names at sub-division, village, taluka and district level.
The decision to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad was taken at the last cabinet meeting of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government chaired by then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on 29 June 2022, shortly before its resignation. However, CM Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who took oath a day later, had said that the Thackeray-led government’s decision to rename these seats was illegal as it took the decision after the Governor asked it to prove majority in the state assembly.
In July last year, the Shinde government had given cabinet approval to change the names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively. During the last cabinet meeting of the MVA government, the name of Aurangabad was changed to Sambhajinagar, but the Shinde government added the word “Chhatrapati” to it.
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