Shiv Sena, BJP want to rename Aurangabad

After lying low for about a decade, the Shiv Sena-BJP combine has now shifted its focus back to the renaming of Aurangabad city and its airport, thanks to the shifting of Dadoji Konddeo's statue from Lal Mahal in Pune. "When the Pune Municipal Corporation was shifting Konddeo's statue through a resolution, the state government took a stand that a local self-government body is empowered to take such a decision. Hence, we too want to follow the same procedure (of renaming Aurangabad city and its airport) in a democratic way," mayor Anita Ghodele said. The saffron combine has moved its ranks in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and revived the proposal to change the name of Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Chikalthana airport as Sambhaji Raje Airport. Ghodele has convened a special general body meeting on January 4 to discuss an official 'name change' resolution to be tabled by the saffron alliance members before the House. In 1995 the AMC general body had passed a resolution to rename the city as Sambhajinagar.