Two days after the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced a new name for Faizabad, the BJP's oldest ally Shiv Sena has mounted pressure on Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis to rename the towns of Aurangabad and Osmanabad.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in a tweet written in Marathi stated with Yogi renaming Allahabad and Faizabad as Prayagraj and Sri Ayodhya respectively, when will Fadnavis rename Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.
Reacting to Raut’s tweet, Maharashtra BJP spokesperson, Shaina NC said that the Shiv Sena can talk but cannot act. “There are certain people who can only talk with Sanjay Raut and Shiv Sena being one of them. We (the BJP) only act,” said Shaina, speaking to the New Indian Express.
Although the Sena is an ally of BJP in ruling governments at the Centre and Maharashtra, it rarely misses an opportunity to attack the party via its mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, despite plans of an alliance in the upcoming assembly polls next year.
While many have been demanding the renaming of the two towns since two decades, there have been no formal petitions by the state government.
Following Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath's decision to rename Allahabad and Faizabad district to Prayagraj and Ayodhya respectively, the trend of renaming cities under Hindu names followed on to other BJP-ruled states. On November 6, Yogi also renamed the Ekank Statium in Lucknow to Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee stadium after the late former Prime Minister of India.
The trend followed on to other BJP-ruled states when, on the same day, Gujarat Deputy CM Nitin Patel said that the government was willing to change Ahmedabad's name to Karnavati name if it gets the required approval and support.
In 2014, Aurangzeb Road in Lutyens Delhi was renamed to APJ Abdul Kalam Road to honour the former President. In 2016, the city of Gurgaon was retitled as ‘Gurugram’ as it is believed that the name of the city came from Guru Dronacharya, from the Mahabharat. There are also demands to change the name of the city of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh to Bhojpal since 2016 is to mark 1,000 years of the coronation of King Bhojpal.