The Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the renaming of Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv. Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis took to Twitter to thank PM Modi and HM Amit Shah. He also said that the Maharashtra government had kept its word of renaming the cities under the leadership of CM Eknath Shinde.

The home ministry while approving the proposal on Friday, February 24, said that the central government had no objection to the change in the names of the two cities of Maharashtra. The demand for the change in names was first raised by Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray. However, despite being in power for two and half years Uddhav Thackeray took no decision in this regard.

Despite being in power for the past two and half years, it was only in his last cabinet meeting as CM that Thackeray officially renamed Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv. Interestingly, both NCP and Congress backed Thackeray even though INC had opposed the move all along. However, there were reports that the NCP and Congress were not happy with the decision and had reluctantly backed the move.

The decision had been pending with the Centre since then. That the approval comes during Balidan Maas (the month of sacrifice Phalgun) as Maharashtra gears up to pay tribute to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj is a matter of joy and celebration.

(Featured Image Source: Times Now)