The Assembly on Friday passed a resolution recommending to the Centre that the Aurangabad airport in Marathwada be renamed Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport, Aurangabad. It was moved by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anil Parab also presented a resolution to rename Mumbai Central railway station after the philanthropist, Nana Shankarsheth, who played an important role in infrastructure development of the city. This was also passed.
Opposition members were not present when Mr. Parab moved the resolution as they had staged a walk-out to protest Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s reply to the budget. The treasury benches slammed the BJP for playing politics over renaming.
BJP MLAs Ashish Shelar and Sanjay Kute returned to the House later. “We (the BJP government) at the Centre will approve the proposal to rename Aurangabad airport after Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj. (But) Why haven’t you renamed Aurangabad city Sambhajinagar yet,” Mr. Shelar asked. He also claimed that the proposal to rename Mumbai Central station after Shankarshet had been introduced in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation more than a decade ago but the then government did not put it before the legislature.
Shiv Sena MLA Sunil Prabhu said the previous BJP-led government did not feel it necessary in the last five years to table the resolution in the legislature.
Ajit Pawar and Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil criticised the Opposition for not being present in the House when the two resolutions were moved.
To this, Yogesh Sagar of the BJP said the resolution on renaming Mumbai Central was not listed on the agenda.
Speaker Nana Patole intervened, saying, “You (Mr. Sagar) were on the panel of presiding officers earlier. You walked out and returned to participate in the business listed next.”
