Mumbai: The Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not leaving a single stone unturned to corner the Shiv Sena over issues which are bound to highlight its ideological divide with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The BJP on Saturday called for the renaming of Aurangabad as ‘Sambhajinagar’.
The Sena has always referred to Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and uses the same name in the party’s mouthpiece Saamana even today.
The Congress and NCP, which are part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, are likely to object to the move, as the renaming would upset the Muslim community.
Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil, who held a review meeting with party officer-bearers in Aurangabad for the upcoming Municipal Corporation election on Saturday, demanded that Aurangabad be named as Sambhajinagar.
Mr Patil said, “We are descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Sambhaji Maharaj not of Aurangzeb.”
Aurangabad had been a major Mughal city in the Deccan region and originates its name from the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, who was the sixth Mughal emperor and ruled over almost the entire Indian subcontinent for 49 years. Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, son of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was tortured to death by Aurangzeb.
