The state cabinet approved the renaming of Ahmednagar to Ahilya nagar after the 18th-century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar on Wednesday.
The proposal to rename the city was first announced by Eknath Shinde, Maharashtra Chief Minister in May last year on the 298th birth anniversary of the 18th century queen Ahilyabai Holkar. The event was attended by Devendra Fadnavis-Maharashtra deputy chief minister, Maharashtra minister Radhakrishnan Vikhe Patil and Gopichand Padalkar-BJP MLA among others.
Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP) had been demanding the renaming of the Ahmednagar district after the renaming of Maharashtra’s Aurangabad and Osmanabad as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Dharashiv, respectively.
“Ahmednagar’s name must be changed to Ahilya Nagar. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis have changed the name of Aurangabad and Osmanabad after a demand raised by everyone. Following that people are also demanding of changing the name of Ahmednagar to Ahilya Nagar”, says BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar when asked about the renaming issue of Ahmednagar.
This is the third renaming of a city in the state in the last two years. In June 2022, last cabinet with Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister had approved a popular in demand request of renaming Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar and that of Osmanabad city as Dharashiv.
Opposition party’s take as Ahilyanagar renames
Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh slammed the renaming decision rather than focusing on “yogi pattern” of renaming the government should be focusing on providing Ahmedabad a drought relief package. He further says,” The decision to rename Ahmednagar city and district as ‘Ahilyanagar’ is unfortunate. Ahmednagar district would have been much happier if a financial package had been given for drought relief. The Maha Yuti government is implementing the ‘Yogi pattern’ of creating an illusion of development by changing the names of the cities without doing anything for development”.
He further keep his views as Punyashloka Ahilya Devi is salutary to all but the government seems to distort the history. He says that the city of Ahmednagr, the capital of the Nizamshahi, was founded by Majlak Ahmad in 1494 There is history of militarization of hundreds of Maratha families during the Nizamshahi rule. These Maratha families during the Nizamshahi rule and these Maratha families later established Swarajya. But in wake of current scenario it seems like the government is trying to change the history by bowing to the demands of some leaders.
“Many people’s representatives, citizens and organizations demanded to change the name of the Ahmednagar city. In this regard, the state government had also received the resolution of the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation administration and information was also sought from the Divisional Commissioner, Nashik. Accordingly it has been recommended to rename it as per the revised guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs and after getting the approval of the Centre, the process of renaming Ahmednagar district, Takula and Municipal Corporation will be done by the Revenue and Urban Development Department,” officials said.
