Keeping in view of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, the BJP government has taken yet another decision to appease the locals by renaming Elphinstone Road railway station on the Western Railway as Prabhadevi
Elphinstone Road station
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Keeping in view of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, the BJP government has taken yet another decision to appease the locals by renaming Elphinstone Road railway station on the Western Railway as Prabhadevi.
It has also recommended that names of Mumbai International Airport and CST be modified so that the honour that the state has for the Maratha King Shivaji Maharaj gets underlined thickly.
The state legislature passed a resolution to this effect on Friday. Though the decision to modify the names of the airport and CST were taken by the Cabinet some days ago – the names will now have a word Maharaj added after Chhatrapati Shivaji, an announcement regarding Elphinstone Road station came as a surprise this afternoon.
A month ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had named the new Oshiwara station, which is located between Jogeshwari and Goregaon as Ram Mandir, a temple of Lord Ram which is situated near the new station on the Western Suburban Railway network. This decision was criticised by the opposition, but renaming of Elphinstone Road to Prabhadevi is not expected to invite as much ire.
The decision to modify the names of airport and CST is seen as a move to appease the restive Maratha community which worships iconic figure Shivaji as demigod. It was felt that the names of the two major transport hubs did not convey the significance of the Maratha King -- the warrior and extraordinary administrator.
The BJP had made Chhatrapati Shivaji one of its planks in 2014 to showcase a nationalist fervour in poll campaign. "Chhatrapati cha ashirvaad... (chhatrapati's blessings) was a tagline used at larger scale in the campaign with a purpose of beating Shiv Sena and the NCP and Congress. The Sena's politics revolves around the name of Shivaji and sons of the soil ideology.
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