All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Imtiaz Jaleel on Monday alleged that the name change plan of Maharashtra's Aurangabad district to Sambhaji Nagar was only intended to change the documents of the government department and will put a burden of Rs 1,000 crore.
"Changing the name of Aurangabad will put a burden of around Rs 1,000 crores on the government. This is only to change the documents of the government department. Common people have to go through a burden of several thousand crores," Mr Jaleel, a Lok Sabha MP from Aurangabad said during a press meet.
The decision to change the name of Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar and another district Osmanabad to Dharashiv was approved by the state cabinet on June 29, a day before the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government fell following the rebellion of Eknath Shinde who later take over as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
However, condemning the former CM Uddhav Thackeray's government's decision to change the name, Samajwadi Party Maharashtra president and MLA Abu Asim Azmi had said that "Be it BJP or MVA - that is walking on crutches - they want to sideline Muslims."
Mr Azmi, on the day of big-decision, reminded the big names of the western state (Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi) of his party's support and said that the ruling party sidelined the minorities.
"I would like to tell Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi that the government is existing with our support. If Government takes such a step, where will we go?. I would like to tell Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan, and Balasaheb Thorat, what do we do? It's that Muslims are being sidelined. I condemn," he had said.
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.
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