Maharashtra’s Social Justice Minister Sanjay Shirsat on Sunday called for the name of Khuldabad, where Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb is located, to be changed to Ratnapur, ANI reported.

“We may need to introduce a resolution in the upcoming state Assembly session,” The Indian Express quoted Shirsat as saying. A letter had been sent to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the matter, he added.

Khuldabad town is located 24 km from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city, formerly known as Aurangabad.

The town houses Aurangzeb’s tomb, which has been the focus of a controversy in recent weeks following demands by Hindutva groups, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, to remove the structure as it symbolised “pain and slavery”.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal are part of a group of Hindutva organisations led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

On March 17, violence broke out in Nagpur hours after Hindutva groups held a protest demanding the tomb’s removal.

“I am not making any new demand,” ANI quoted Shirsat, who is also the guardian minister of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, as saying on Sunday. “This is already in the history. When the British came here, the tax they levied was on the name of Ratanpur and Daulatabad was called Devgiri.”

He added that such changes in names had been recorded in history.

“The people who are overflowing with love for Aurangzeb, we want to show them that you have erased our history,” he claimed. “You changed the names of many villages to create terror. Now they want to erase those memories. We want to re-establish the old names there.”

Shirsat said that the demand for renaming Khuldabad would be discussed in the Assembly and a proposal would have to be passed. “Later, its permission will be taken from the Centre and its name will be changed,” he added.

In March, Shirsat had claimed that there was no place for Aurangzeb’s grave in Maharashtra and added that it should be uprooted, The Indian Express reported.

During the clashes in Nagpur on March 17, stones were thrown at the police amid rumours that a cloth with the Islamic declaration of faith, known as the Kalma, had been burnt during an agitation by a Hindutva group in the late afternoon.

The police, however, denied that such a cloth was burned during the protest.

Several persons, including police personnel, were injured and vehicles were damaged in the violence. A 38-year-old man who was injured in the clashes died at a hospital on March 22.

The police arrested more than 100 persons. Fadnavis said on March 22 that the cost of damage to property during the violence would be recovered from the rioters.

On March 31, Uttarakhand announced that it was renaming Aurangzebpur in Haridwar district to Shivaji Nagar. This was among names of 17 places in four districts being changed “in accordance with public sentiment and Indian culture and heritage”.