Maharashtra's Samajwadi Party rakes up issue of renaming Aurangabad, Osmanabad

The Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra unit on Sunday raked up the issue of renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in his last cabinet meeting that was also approved by NCP and Congress ministers.

Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Samajwadi Party's Maharashtra unit on Sunday raked up the issue of renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in his last cabinet meeting that was also approved by NCP and Congress ministers. The SP and AIMIM leaders today abstained from voting for the Speaker's post in Maharashtra Assembly, which went to the BJP. The BJP had fielded Rahul Narvekar against Rajan Salvi of Uddhav's Sena. Rahul Narwekar received 164 votes through headcount.

"We tolerated that so BJP may not come, now they renamed Aurangabad and Osmanabad. Muslims are being targeted by BJP, Uddhav and now Shinde as well. Hinduism is not wrong, spreading hatred is," said Abu Asim Azmi, Samajwadi Party, Maharashtra president. The SP MLA and state president also said that his party supported the coalition government and never asked for any post because it wanted secularism in the State.

"I supported, never asked for any post because we wanted secularism in the state. In the House they once said they're proud that Shivsainiks demolished Babri Masjid," he added. In a first win for the BJP and the Shinde camp, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rahul Narwekar was elected as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Sunday. Narwekar received a total of 164 votes in support and 107 against him.

Eknath Shinde's 10-day rebellion against Shiv Sena brought down the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The political crisis in Maharashtra ended with Shinde taking over as Chief Minister and BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as deputy chief minister. The Eknath Shinde camp, which had stayed mostly in Guwahati during the revolt, had said that Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are Shiv Sena's traditional rivals. They had earlier urged Uddhav Thackeray to stitch a "natural alliance" with the BJP.

The post of the Speaker went vacant in the Assembly after Congress' Nana Patole resigned from the office in February 2021, to take charge as the party's state unit chief. In the absence of a Speaker, Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal was playing the part of an acting Speaker in the House. In the two-day special session of the Assembly that began today, the Shinde-Fadnavis government will have to prove its majority on the floor of the House on Monday in a vote of Confidence.