Days after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath renamed Faizabad as Ayodhya, BJP ally Shiv Sena has demanded that the state government in Maharashtra change the names of Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad to Dharashiv. Shiv Sena leader Manisha Kayande said that the demand for the renaming of Aurangabad and Osmanabad is not new. “This is our long-standing demand and this has been raised several times but Congress and NCP opposed it to appease the Muslim voters,” she told ANI.
This comes on a day Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani informed that the government was contemplating changing the name of Ahmedabad to Karnavati. Speaking to ANI, Rupani on Thursday said that the talks for renaming Ahmedabad have been on for a long time. “Concrete steps will be taken after looking at it from legal and all other angles. We will think about it in the time to come,” he said.
A day earlier, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel had congratulated Yogi Adityanath for changing the name of Faizabad to Ayodhya. While speaking to reporters in Gandhinagar, Patel also addressed the demand for changing the name of Ahmedabad to Karnavati. The deputy CM said: “We are ready to do that if we get enough support to overcome legal hurdles.”
Ever since the Modi government took over, it has changed the names of various roads and railway stations. However, the recent demand for renaming the cities grew only after Yogi Adityanath renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj.
The BJP’s move to change the names of the cities has irked many opposition leaders who have termed it a gimmick to distract the people from the real issues. Reacting to Yogi Aditynath’s move in Uttar Pradesh, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told PTI: “This is BJP government’s ploy to cover up its failure in governance. At the same time, the name change also reflects its anti-Muslim feelings.”
