Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday announced that Ahmednagar city would be renamed ‘Ahilyanagar’ after the 18th century Maratha queen Ahilyabai Holkar, famed for her piety and benign administration.

• Mr. Shinde’s announcement came on the 298th birth anniversary of Ahilyabai Holkar, who had proved to be an extremely able ruler in the erstwhile Malwa province in the anarchic 18th century, establishing Maheshwar (in Madhya Pradesh) as the seat of the Holkar dynasty.
• The renaming of Ahmednagar follows the Shinde-Fadnavis government’s move in February this year to rename Aurangabad as ‘Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar’ and Osmanabad as ‘Dharashiv.’