Congress objects as Uddhav's office repeatedly calls Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar

Mumbai: A row is brewing in Maharashtra over renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar with Shiv Sena repeatedly calling the city by the ‘new name’ despite objections from the Congress. On Thursday, the Maharashtra chief minister’s Twitter handle again referred to the city as Sambhaji Nagar while addressing it as the capital region of Marathwada.
The timing of the tweet from the CM’s handle is important as the Congress had bluntly asked the government to avoid raking up the issue when the CMO had referred to Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar on Wednesday. Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat, who is also the revenue minister in the state government, on Thursday, said: “We are of the strong opinion that names of cities should not be changed, there are many states that have changed the name of states, but how has it improved the lives of the poor there? We should not create discord among the people but create happiness,” said Thorat.

The Congress minister said he hoped that the CMO’s tweet calling would not happen again. “Tweeting from the official handle makes it like an official document, hope they will take precautions that it will not happen again. I think it (Sena) has got the message,’ said Thorat on Thursday. The Congress minister had already expressed his displeasure late on Wednesday night tweeting his unhappiness at the CMO tweeting it as Sambhaji Nagar.

The NCP too asked the Shiv Sena government to stick to the common minimum programme and not get embroiled in the issue of renaming. “The renaming issue has been pending for a long time, however the government runs on the common programme and so we will all sit together and take a decision,” said NCP leader and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar. The Shiv Sena has been wanting to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and was about to effect the name change till the Congress objected. The Shiv Sena led government has however already began calling Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar in official communications.