Leading the procession, state AIMIM President and MP Syed Imtiaz Jaleel condemned the decision — taken in the final Cabinet meeting of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, when its countdown had begun.
Later, the new government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis indicated that they would honour the previous regime’s decision on the issue, as a large number of people are in favour of renaming the city.
“Our question is, why the name-change was not done when the BJP-Shiv Sena were in power (2014-2019). The decision was taken for political reasons, nobody has any love for Chhatrapati Sambhaji,” Jaleel said, attacking the MVA, Sena, BJP and Nationalist Congress Party.
He alleged how for the past two decades, the Sena-BJP had kept the issue burning alive for their political motives and finally it was taken only for ‘protecting the chair’.
“If they believe that this renaming decision will be acceptable to all the people now, they must remember that the country can be run only as per the Constitution of Babasaheb Amedkar,” Jaleel said.
Slamming the Congress-NCP, he reiterated that after allying with the Sena, “both parties have been saffronised” and they are only making a pretence of secularism.
Targeting NCP President Sharad Pawar, Jaleel said first he had said that the NCP was a party to the decision, and then backtracked saying he (Pawar) had no knowledge of the renaming move.
Slamming the AIMIM, Shiv Sena MLC Ambadas Danve asked why the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party has so much love for emperor Aurangzeb, and issued a veiled warning that “if they take one step, we will take two”.
On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of AIMIM supporters and commoners marched in a procession waving the Tricolour and posters, and raised slogans opposing the renaming of Aurangabad to ‘Sambhajinagar’.
On June 29, at the MVA’s final Cabinet meeting, the crucial decision was taken to rechristen Aurangabad as ‘Sambhajinagar’, Osmanabad as ‘Dharashiv’, and the upcoming new international airport in Navi Mumbai after prominent leader D.B. Patil.
At that meeting presided over by Thackeray, the Congress had put forth demands to rename Pune as ‘Jijaunagar’ (in memory of the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj), and the upcoming Mumbai Trans Harbour Link after late Chief Minister A.R. Antulay.