Chhatrapati Sambhaijnagar: The state government plans to rename Aurangabad district, city, taluka, and village Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad Dharashiv, but the election commission has ordered the constituency’s name to remain unchanged for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
According to the official sources, a hearing is currently going on in the Bombay High Court against the renaming of Aurangabad city and Osmanabad city.
The code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections is likely to come into effect next month.
It was expected that the new name of the constituency would be given in the situation where the Election Commission is preparing for the election, but instead of that, the Election Commission has informed us that the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections of these constituencies will have the same name.
The election commission has also clearly mentioned the old names of the constituencies in the Aurangabad district voter list.
When asked about this, District Election Commission sources said that the proposal to change the name of the constituency has been submitted to the Election Commission of India.
Till now, no letter regarding the name change has been received.
The old name is being used on the voter list.
Similarly, Vidhan Parishad Constituency will have the same name.
The State Election Commission had corresponded with the Central Election Commission regarding this renaming of the constituency.
They clearly stated that Aurangabad and Osmanabad would only be the names of these constituencies.
According to the rules of the Delimitation Commission, the census will be held after 2026, and after that, the constituencies will be restructured. Hence, the name of the constituency will remain as it is.
The same will be applicable to Osmanabad.
Due to this order, the new MP/MLA will be mentioned in Aurangabad and Osmanabad only.
According to the order of September 15, 2023, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar of Aurangabad district and division and Dharashiv of Osmanabad district were changed by the state government.
A proposal to change the name of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha constituencies as per the provisions of the Delimitation Act was sent to the Election Commission of India on November 28, 2023.
According to the Election Commission of India’s letter dated January 5, 2024, the creation of administrative divisions in states, amendment thereof, and change of names is a regular process carried out by the state government from time to time as per requirement.
The name scope of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha constituencies is determined by the Delimitation Commission established at that time.
Therefore, it has been mentioned that there is no need to change the names of Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha, and Vidhan Parishad constituencies.
Reacting to this order, anti-name change petitioner Mohammad Hisham Osmani told UNI on Tuesday that the matter is being heard in court. We believe in the court and that we will get justice.
We believe that our historical identity will not be erased and because this is a historical name and is in everyone’s mind.
Although there is politics over name change, we have presented in court how the central government guidelines of 1953 are being violated by the state government.
We welcome the order passed by the Election Commission and believe that the court too will set aside government notification, which is done with malafied intentions just to target minorities, and the names of Aurangabad and Osmanabad will remain the same only, added Osmani.
