Retributive justice awaits Aurangzeb, the bête noire of the saffron ecosystem, three centuries after his death with the authorities in Meerut planning to rechristen the localities named after him.

Harikant Ahluwalia, the mayor of the Meerut Nagar Nigam, said the decision was taken following repeated demands by locals.

“It is an old demand and we are going to act on it now. Aurangshahpur Diggi will be called Sambhaji Nagar and Aurangshahpur Golabarh will become Shivaji Nagar. The resolution will soon be tabled in the municipal corporation,” he told reporterson Sunday.

Shivaji, the founder of the Maratha empire, and Aurangzeb had engaged in a long-standing conflict, with each vying for supremacy in the Deccan region, leading to multiple battles. Sambhaji was the eldest son of Shivaji.

Local BJP MLA Amit Agrawal was the first to submit a name-change proposal.

“Aurangzeb was a looter and tormentor of the Hindus. We must get rid of his shadow,” Ahluwalia said.

The Meerut Nagar Nigam had earlier changed the names of Begumpul to Bharat Mata Chawk and Begumbagh to Rambagh.

Recently, the Varanasi civic authority resolved to change the names of 50 localities in the city, a majority of which have a substantial Muslim population.

Aurangabad, which was named after Aurangzeb, is likely to be renamed Parashuram Chawk, Laxmi Nagar or Narayani Dham.

Historians have claimed that there was no written evidence to suggest that Aurangzeb was involved in naming the areas after him, but it was a general practice among locals to name the localities after their rulers.

On Saturday, the Muzaffarnagar zilla panchayat also passed a resolution to change its name to Laxminagar.

Manoj Kumar, a panchayat member, said: “We passed the resolution unanimously and forwarded it to chief minister Yogi Adityanath for finalapproval.”

The demand to change the name of Muslim localities has intensified in Uttar Pradesh after Adityanath became chief minister in 2017. Since then, his government has renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj, Mughalsarai as Deendayal Upadhyaya Nagar and Faizabad as Ayodhya.

Ridiculing the chief minister for encouraging the craze for name-change, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav had a few days ago said: “The government will start working for the people only when it gets time from changing the names of the places.”