Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg: Ex-Advocate General opposes naming road after Bal Thackeray

Former Advocate General opposed the Shiv Sena’s demand to name the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg after late Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray. (Source: File Photo)

The former Advocate General, Shrihari Aney, on Wednesday opposed the Shiv Sena’s demand to name the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg after late Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray.

Criticising the Sena, Aney questioned the role of the regional party in the development and growth of the Vidarbha region. Aney said there is a long list of stalwarts from the region whose name would be more befitting for the corridor. “Instead of giving Uddhav’s father Bal Thackeray’s name, why not consider the name of late Gangadharrao Fadnavis, the father of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis?” Aney asked.

The eight-lane 701 km road between Nagpur and Mumbai finds itself embroiled over the naming controversy following differences between alliance partners BJP and Sena.

On Tuesday, the Sena minister in-charge of the Public Works Department (PWD) (Public Undertaking), Eknath Shinde, wrote to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis demanding that the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg be named after the late Bal Thackeray. “The Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg, which is all set to transform the face of Maharashtra, should be named after late Bal Thackeray. In 1995, Bal Thackeray had laid the concept of the Mumbai-Pune Mahamarg. The project helped to bring down the travel time between Mumbai and Pune from five hours to two hours. Since Bal Thackeray pioneered the high-speed project, we should give his name to the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg. These are the sentiments of several Sena leaders,” Shinde wrote.

On Wednesday, the former AG said: “The Shiv Sena can name everything in Mumbai and Pune after Balasaheb Thackeray. But when it comes to the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg, why shouldn’t great social reformers and thinkers, poets and litterateurs be considered? Why not consider the name of social reformers Baba Amte or mendicant saint Gadge Maharaj? Why not name it after great saints from the region, Gajanan Maharaj or Tukdoji Maharaj or Tajuddin Baba? Why not name it after Jijabai, the mother of the great warrior king Chhatrapati Maharaj, who hailed from Vidarbha? Or one of the greatest ruler of Rajgond dynasty, Bhakt Buland Shah? Why not consider great writers, poets from the region, like Kavi Grace or Ram Ganesh Gadkari or Suresh Bhat?”

Aney also advocated the names of Mahatma Gandhi, Babasaheb Ambedkar and former Prime Minister (Congress) Narasimha Rao. Rao, who had studied in Vidarbha, later contested the Ramtek Lok Sabha seat in the region. A section of the BJP has been demanding that the corridor be named after late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.