As local body elections are due this year in the state, major political parties in Maharashtra have gone on an overdrive while clamouring for naming the historical city of Aurangabad after the Maratha warrior Sambhaji, son of Chhatrpati Shivaji Maharaj. Be it the Raj Thackeray-led MNS or the Udhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena or the BJP, the saffron outfits are engaged in a high-decibel war of words over the issue. The Congress Party, however, has taken a stance against the renaming of the city. The Congress Party is a coalition partner in the Maha Vikas Agadi government, along with the NCP. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP is treading cautiously and is underplaying the issue.
The city at the heart of the raging controversy was originally known as Khadki. It was founded by Malik Ambar more than 400 years ago in 1610 as a confederacy of Nizamshahi. After the fall of Nizam rule, it came under
Mughal rule. Aurangzeb made the city his headquarters as the ruler of Deccan and changed its name to Aurangabad. Aurangzeb lived here till his death in 1707 and was buried here. The city has a mausoleum dedicated to his first wife Dilras Banu Begum. It is the city which is also known for Ajanta and Ellora caves.
Though the issue of changing its name after the Maratha warrior king goes back to the 1980s, its has gained renewed currency in recent days as elections to about one and a half dozen municipalities, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Solapur, Pune, Thane, Vasai-Virar and Kalyan, among others, may be held sometime around September or October.
Aurangabad is also known as the capital city of Marathwada. It was, in fact, Balasaheb Thackeray who gave a call to change the name of the city to Sambhajinagar way back in 1988. It was the time when Shiv Sena under its chief Balasaheb had begun to expand its sphere of influence beyond Mumbai-Thane and had won elections to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation. The reason behind this call was not lost. Aurangzeb had tortured and executed Maratha warrior king Sambhaji Maharaj in Aurangabad. The Shiv Sainiks, in fact, since then call the city by the name of Sambhajinagar only.
Saffron outfits like the BJP and MNS not only have demanded to rename the city to Sambhajinagar but they have also given a call for the destruction of Aurangzeb’s tomb there, to corner the ruling Shiv Sena. The Shiv Sena, on the other hand, has raised the issue of renaming the Aurangabad airport after Sambhaji. “Why the BJP failed to rename Aurangabad when the party was in power for five years in the sate under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis?” the Shiv Sena has asked. Lashing out the BJP, the Shiv Sena challenged the party to first change the name of Ahmadabad. We will rename Aurangabad, the Shiv Sena said, but we will do it legally. We will also remove Aurangzeb’s tomb but will do it legally.
Raj Thackeray’s MNS has also asked the ruling Shiva Sena that when Balasaheb Thackeray himself used to call Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and when the Shiv Sena is in government in the state why it has failed to rename the city to Sambhajinagar. It was Balasaheb Thackeray, in fact, who was the first to raise the demand, the party said, but the Maha Vikas Agadi government is not doing so. Taking a swipe at Udhav Thackeray, MNS leader Raj Thackeray rebuked him saying, “Who is Udhav to rename the city?” The city will not be renamed, the MNS leader said, unless and until the government issued an order to this effect.
According to 2011 Census figures, Hindus constitute 51% of the city’s 11.75 lakh, while 30.8% of its population is Muslim. Given the demographics of the city, the issue has the potential to snowball into an electoral flashpoint, and this is what saffron outfits are trying to do as a prelude. The Shiv Sean has ruled the Aurangabad municipality for two decades between 1999 and 2020 and the city has returned its MP from the party four times in the past. However, the saffron outfit lost the ground in the last parliamentary elections to AIMIM.
Way back in 1995, the Shiv Sena led Aurangabad Municipality had passed a resolution to rename the city to Sambhajinagar and was forwarded to the BJP-Shiv Sena-led state government. The resolution was approved by the state cabinet but the cause was lost to a court battle. “When BJP-Shiv Sena was in government in 1995, the cabinet had approved the proposal to rename Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar. But someone moved the court against the proposal. Although both the High Court and the Supreme Court verdicts were in our favour, the issue remained unresolved when our coalition lost power,” says Chandrakant Khaire, former Member of Parliament from Aurangabad. With local elections round the corner, the issue is set to gain more steam.