Marking the end of a three-decade-old campaign once championed by the late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, the Centre on Friday notified the change of name for Aurangabad and Osmanabad districts of the Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
Aurangabad will now be known as Chhatrapati SambhajiNagar - a name that it gets from Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, the son of legendary Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. On the other hand, Osmanabad acquired its ancient name -- Dharashiv.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued the notification, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in a tweet.
It may be mentioned when the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP government was in power an attempt was made to change the name of the two districts but it got into legal complications. When Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government was in power it revived the efforts. In fact, after his government was topped, this was the last Cabinet decision.
When the government led by Eknath Shinde came to power, it reworked the proposal and passed it in Cabinet and sent it to the Centre.