Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde introduced Wednesday that Ahmednagar metropolis could be renamed Ahilyanagar after the Maratha warrior queen Ahilyabai Holkar — a improvement that got here on the 298th start anniversary of the 18th century ruler of Malwa’s Holkar dynasty.
“Respecting the general public demand, Ahmednagar will now be after Ahilyadevi Holkar,” CM Eknath Shinde stated at a public rally organised in Chondi, Ahmednagar. “This choice was taken by the state authorities. And I’m proud that each Devendra ji and I are part of this historic second.”
That is the third metropolis in Maharashtra to be renamed in a 12 months — this February, the state authorities formally authorized a proposal to rename Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.
Born into the Dhangar caste — a herding caste in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh — Ahilyadevi Holkar was certainly one of a handful of girls rulers in that interval and has been credited with constructing a number of temples not solely in Malwa but in addition throughout India.
Situated in western Maharashtra, Ahmednagar was named after Ahmad Nizam Shah I, the founding father of the Nizam Shahi dynasty. Town has been part of varied kingdoms — together with the Rashtrakutas, the Western Chalukyas, the Delhi Sultanate and the Deccan Sultanate.
The demand to alter the title of Ahmednagar after Ahilyabai was began by BJP chief and MLC Gopichand Padalkar. In June 2022 — days earlier than the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) authorities led by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray fell — Padalkar reportedly wrote to him along with his demand.
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Different title adjustments
The MVA authorities beneath Thackeray first authorized renaming Aurangabad and Osmanabad — a longstanding demand of his then undivided Shiv Sena — in June in what was its final cupboard assembly earlier than it fell.
Whereas Aurangabad was named after Aurangzeb, the Mughal ruler who killed celebrated Maratha king Shivaji’s son, Sambhaji, in 1689, Osmanabad was named after Mir Osman Ali Khan, the final ruler of Hyderabad.
Quickly after it got here to energy, nevertheless, the Shiv Sena-BJP authorities led by Shinde stayed the choice and as an alternative despatched a contemporary proposal, which was lastly authorized in February 2023.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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