Renaming of Aurangabad airport to ‘Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj airport’ on cards, says MoS Bhagwat Karad
The Hindu
Decision assumes significance ahead of impending civic polls
The Centre is due to take a decision soon on a proposal to rename 13 airports in the country, including Maharashtra’s Aurangabad airport as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport’, said Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Bhagwat Karad.
Dr. Karad, a Rajya Sabha MP, said besides the Aurangabad airport, the Shirdi airport in Ahmednagar district is proposed to be renamed as ‘Sai Baba airport’ and the one in Kolhapur district as ‘Mahalakshmi airport’.
“A decision in this regard is likely to be taken in the next Cabinet meeting. Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia will soon submit a joint proposal to the Cabinet in this regard. The Centre order [on the name change of the airports] will soon be coming,” he informed. He added there was a demand from people’s representatives for the renaming of Aurangabad airport.
Nearly two years ago, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had put forward a proposal in the Maharashtra Assembly to change the name of Aurangabad Airport to ‘Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport’.
As the civic polls draw near, the renaming of Aurangabad airport has always been fraught with political connotations.
The Shiv Sena is the single-largest party with 30 seats in the 112-seat Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). Following the 2015 AMC election, an alliance of the Sena and the BJP had led to the former installing its candidate as the Mayor.
Now, with a bitter split between the two erstwhile allies and the Sena allying with the ideologically opposed Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the stakes for the AMC have never been higher.
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