Uddhav makes emotional pitch to reclaim Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: ‘Will retire if you decide not to stand by me’

In the 2019 Assembly polls, the undivided Shiv Sena and BJP swept each 9 Assembly seats successful Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar, past known arsenic Aurangabad. The BJP won Phulambri (Haribhau Bagde), Gangapur (Prashant Bamb) and Aurangabad East (Atul Save).

The undivided Sena won Kannad (Udaysingh Rajput), Sillod (Abdul Sattar), Aurangabad Central (Pradeep Jaiswal), Aurangabad West (Sanjay Shirsat), Paithan (Sandipan Bhumare) and Vaijapur (Ramesh Bornale). Except for Rajput from Kannad Assembly seat, each 5 MLAs chose to articulation hands with Shinde aft his rebellion against Thackeray.

Except for the 1998 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the undivided Sena has been winning the wide elections present since 1989. In 1998, Ramkrishna Patil of the Congress had won the election. After the split, Sena UBT fielded erstwhile MP Chandrakant Khaire portion Shinde-led Sena fielded Sandipan Bhumare. Both battled against the incumbent Imtiyaz Jaleel of AIMIM.

Riding precocious connected the question created pursuing the agitation led by Maratha societal activistic Manoj Jarange-Patil, Bhumare won the LS election, becoming the archetypal Maratha MP of this constituency since 1998.

In Assembly polls excessively the enactment faced an embarrassment. Its campaigner Kishanchand Tanwani from Aurangabad Central backed retired astatine the past infinitesimal forcing the enactment to tract its metropolis main Balasaheb Thorat.

Except for Kannad seat, the Sena UBT has fixed tickets to caller faces to instrumentality connected the existing MLAs from Shinde Sena. Three-term MLA Sanjay Shirsat is facing SS-UBT’s Raju Shinde who fought arsenic an autarkic successful 2019 polls. Former BJP person Dinesh Pardeshi has joined the SS-UBT to instrumentality connected Ramesh Bornale successful Vaijapur portion Suresh Bankar is Thackeray’s campaigner against curate Abdul Sattar successful Sillod. Undivided NCP campaigner Datta Gorde successful 2019 polls is simply a campaigner against Vilas Bhumare, lad of LS MP Sandipan Bhumare, successful Paithan.

“It (the LS defeat) wounded me. I cannot digest the information that radical of this metropolis voted to idiosyncratic who backstabbed the party. The enactment which gave him his governmental individuality and a career,” said Thackeray.

Background

Then CM Sharad Pawar’s connection successful the precocious 1970s to rename the Marathwada University arsenic Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar University saw protests and riots. The Shiv Sena, past led by its laminitis precocious Bal Thackeray, managed to make a basal successful Marathwada and brought Maratha leaders into its fold.

In the 1990s, erstwhile the Ram Temple request gained momentum, the BJP made inroads into the region. The Shiv Sena, which took a Hindutva turn, strengthened its base. In the precocious 2000s, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Musilimeen (AIMIM) — a Hyderabad-based enactment —- besides started making inroads successful Marathwada. The region, which is said to person an estimated 15% Muslim population, was portion of the erstwhile Nizam authorities of Hyderabad. With a absorption connected the Muslim-dominated areas, the AIMIM strengthened its base.

In this background, known arsenic the superior of Marathwada region, successful the precocious 1980s, Aurangabad became 1 of the archetypal large cities extracurricular the Mumbai-Thane loop that the Shiv Sena acceptable its eyes on. The city’s 30% Muslim colonisation made it fertile crushed for polarisation. Following communal riots that led to the sidesplitting of implicit 25 people, successful 1988, the Sena won elections to the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation.

On May 8, 1988, Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray announced the renaming of the metropolis to Sambhajinagar aft Sambhaji Maharaj. In 1995, the Aurangabad Corporation passed a solution to bash so, and the past Sena-led authorities successful the authorities issued a notification seeking suggestions and objections from radical connected this.

“Khan ki baan (Khan oregon arrow — successful notation to undivided Sena’s canvass awesome of Bow and Arrow) was the slogan utilized extensively by the Sena successful each elections,” said Jaidev Dole, a elder governmental commentator from Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar.

While Thackeray is trying to link emotionally with his erstwhile stronghold, CM Shinde is leaving nary chromatic unturned to allege the ideological displacement of Thackerays. “In the epoch of Balasaheb (Thackeray), the leaders of Delhi utilized to travel to conscionable him astatine Matoshri (Thackeray residence). Now, you (Uddhav) person to roam gullies of Delhi. All this is due to the fact that you person fixed up connected Balasaheb’s ideology,” said Shinde connected Thursday.

Sena-BJP harvester has been controlling the Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar municipal corp since 1995. Despite the full dominance successful governmental sphere, the h2o woos of the metropolis continue. From Marathwada h2o grid to stream linking projects, respective plans person been made to lick the problem, but the contented remains unsolved.

Both Thackeray and Shinde assertion the recognition of renaming Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Samabhajinagar. “In the past furniture gathering earlier our authorities was pulled down by these gaddars (traitors), we cleared the connection of renaming,” Thackeray claimed. Shinde counters saying it was his authorities which completed the process and ensured that the process is completed with the assistance of cardinal authorities led by PM.

The successive governments marque it a constituent to clasp a peculiar authorities furniture successful the metropolis and state packages worthy thousands of crore. “Impressive packages and strategy are announced successful these meetings, but however overmuch of it truly materialise remains to beryllium studied,” Dole said.