Sambhaji Brigade seeks to rename Pune to ‘Jijapur’ after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's mother

After the Centre approved the renaming of 25 places and towns in the past one year, the Sambhaji Brigade, a Maratha organisation, has sought to rename Pune to “Jijapur” in a letter issued to the Maharashtra government. The Maratha outfit claimed that since the construction of Pune city was done by Jijabai, the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, it is appropriate to name the city after her.

The demand comes a few days after Shiv Sena sought to know when the Maharashtra government rename the state’s Aurangabad and Osmanabad cities.

“We support Shiv Sena’s demand of changing Aurangabad and Osmanabad’s name to Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv. We want to make a similar demand for Pune and want it to be called Jijapur,” Santosh Shinde, Pune district president of Sambhaji Brigade, told Pune Mirror.  “We hope there will be no protest over this proposal as the government and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis themselves claim that the government has been established with the blessings of Chhatrapati Shivaji.”

The brigade was slated to meet Naval Kishore Ram, District Collector and submit an official letter for its demand on Monday, reported Times Now.

Last month, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh had renamed Allahabad as “Prayagraj”, and on Tuesday announced that Faizabad district will henceforth be known as Ayodhya.

It has also come to light that the Centre has given consent to the renaming of at least 25 towns and villages across India in the past one year and among the pending proposals is one for the state of West Bengal.

Some of the approved name change proposals are Rajahmundry as Rajamahendravaram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh; Outer Wheeler as APJ Abdul Kalam Island, situated in Bhadrak district of Odisha; Arikkod as Areekode in Malappura district of Kerala; Pindari as Pandu-Pindara in Jind district of Haryana; and Samphur as Sanphure in Kiphire district of Nagaland.

The renaming of a state requires amendment of the Constitution with a simple majority in Parliament. For changing the name of a village or town, an executive order is needed.

With inputs from PTI