Aurangabad: A large number of protesters took out a candle march on Thursday evening against changing the name of Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The protest march was taken out under the banner of the Anti-Name Change Action Committee.
The candle march which started from the collector's office and concluded at the Bhadkal gate also witnessed participation by a larger number of women protesters.
Earlier protests against the renaming of Aurangabad were held by local AIMIM MP Imtiaz Jaleel who not only slammed the Centre and the State government over the renaming but also questioned whether the latter followed proper procedure for renaming the city.
" Who asked you (Centre) to change the name of Aurangabad? Did you seek the opinion of the people? Such decisions should be taken after taking public opinion under consideration. But no such steps were taken in this case," said the AIMIM MP.
Striking a defiant note, the AIMIM MP had said that Aurangabad was and will always be their city. His comments attracted sharp responses from Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Shrishat, known to be close to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The MLA said that if they (AIMIM) love Aurangzeb so much they should shift his grave to Hyderabad or construct a memory in Hyderabad. An organization called the Maratha Kranti Morcha warned Jaleel that they would lodge a police complaint against him for holding such protests.
The Union Government in February approved the Maharashtra Government's proposal to rename Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. It also approved the proposal to change the name of Osmanabad to Dharashiv.
