Aurangabad renaming tussle Cong-Sena farce, says Fadnavis

Senior Maharashtra leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday criticized the Shiv Sena and Congress over the tussle on the renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar. When I was in power, Sena leaders from Aurangabad wrote a letter to the state government demanding the name be changed from Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar.

Senior Maharashtra leader Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday criticized the Shiv Sena and Congress over the tussle on the renaming of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar. With Aurangabad municipal corporation elections likely to be held next year, some local Shiv Sena leaders have been demanding the name change.

The Sena first made the demand to rename Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar over two decades ago, and a proposal was passed in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in June 1995, which was challenged by a Congress corporator in the high court and later in the Supreme Court. ''When I was in power, Sena leaders from Aurangabad wrote a letter to the state government demanding the name be changed from Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar. However, these leaders never took up the issue sincerely nor completed necessary procedures to change the name,'' Fadnavis said.

''It is a farce. It is a fixed match between Shiv Sena and Congress. By demanding the name change, Sena is securing its votebank and by opposing it, the Congress is doing the same,'' he said. Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said when the BJP-Sena government was in power, his party corporators had asked the Sena mayor in Aurangabad to follow up on the name change but the request was ignored.

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