Maharashtra State Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the decisions to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts to Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv respectively and also passed the proposal to extend name of farmer leader late D.B. Patil to under construction Navi Mumbai international airport.
Decisions to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad were pending for many years and the Shiv Sena has been demanding the same for years. Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had mocked the Sena in the past questioning when the decision for the same will be taken.
While the confidence motion on the State government is still pending, Mr. Thackeray in the meeting thanked the administration. “I am extremely thankful for your cooperation in last two and half years. I apologise if any of you is hurt,” he said in the meeting. Mr. Thackeray also thanked his allies – the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – saying they both cooperated with him. “But my own partymen betrayed,” he said.
The decisions also come on the backdrop of rebellion against CM Thackeray by his party’s second in command Eknath Shinde with the support of 39 MLAs. Mr. Shinde has claimed that he wants the Sena to snap ties with the Congress and the NCP for the sake of Hindutva.
The Congress too moved proposals of renaming. It demanded renaming of Pune City to Jijaunagar and Sewri-Nhava Sheva trans harbour link to former CM late A.R. Antulay.
Congress Minister Sunil Kedar who moved the proposal said that the demand was important and there was in principle approval to it from the Cabinet.
