Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has indicated it will change Hyderabad’s name to Bhagyanagar if it wins the upcoming mayoral polls in the city, a party leader from Madhya Pradesh-where it is in power-has suggested that Bhopal’s Idgah Hills and the city of Hoshangabad should be known by new names.
“Idgah Hills in Bhopal should be known as Guru Nanak Tekri because Guru Nanak Dev visited the place 500 years ago when there was no Idgah there. I appeal to people to call it Guru Nanak Tekri,” said BJP leader Rameshwar Sharma, who is also the protem speaker of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, on a day the country is celebrating Gurpurab, the birth anniversary of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak.
“Hoshangabad should be called as Narmadapuram. Hoshang Shah was a looter. He attacked the city and destroyed its temples. That is why we have called it Narmadapuram and the govt has created Narmadapuram division,” Sharma further told news agency ANI.
The BJP has raised the stakes for the upcoming Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, with many of its prominent leaders, including Union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, national president JP Nadda and youth wing chief Tejaswi Surya campaigning in the IT city. While Surya has referred to Hyderabad as ‘Bhagyanagar’ in several of his tweets, Adityanath, who campaigned in the Telangana capital on Saturday, went so far as to say, “Some people were asking me if Hyderabad can be renamed as Bhagyanagar. I said, ‘Why not?’”
{{/usCountry}}The BJP has raised the stakes for the upcoming Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, with many of its prominent leaders, including Union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, national president JP Nadda and youth wing chief Tejaswi Surya campaigning in the IT city. While Surya has referred to Hyderabad as ‘Bhagyanagar’ in several of his tweets, Adityanath, who campaigned in the Telangana capital on Saturday, went so far as to say, “Some people were asking me if Hyderabad can be renamed as Bhagyanagar. I said, ‘Why not?’”
{{/usCountry}}This has triggered a bitter war of words between the BJP and the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). The BJP had pitched renaming Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar during campaigning for the 2018 Telangana assembly polls as well.
In 2018, the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, which Adityanath heads, had renamed Faizabad district to Ayodhya and Allahabad to Prayagraj, among others.