The Yogi Adityanath government recently renamed Allahabad and Faizabad districts as Prayag Raj and Ayodhya.
Uttar Pradesh minister Om Prakash Rajbhar on Saturday hit out at his ally BJP over the Yogi Adityanath government's spree of city renaming. The chief of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) said that the BJP should first change the names of their Muslim leaders including Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
"BJP changed the names of Mughalsarai and Faizabad. They say they were named after the Mughals. They have a national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, UP Minister Mohsin Raza - 3 Muslim faces of the BJP. Change their names first," Rajbhar said.
"This is all a drama to distract the backward and oppressed whenever they raise their voices to demand their rights. No one else has given the things which Muslims gave," he said.
"Should we throw away GT Road? Who built the Red Fort? Who built the Taj Mahal?" Rajbhar asked.
The Yogi Adityanath government recently renamed Allahabad and Faizabad districts as Prayag Raj and Ayodhya, respectively, and BJP leaders in other states have also spoken in favour of changing names of cities there.
Firebrand BJP leader Sangeet Som has demanded that Muzaffarnagar be renamed as Laxminagar.
The Sardhana MLA said it was a long pending demand of the locals. The Muzaffarnagar riot accused claimed that the original name of the city was Laxminagar and a nawab named Muzaffar Ali had named it after himself.
Speaking to ANI, Som said, "Abhi to bahut shehron ke naam badle jaane hain. Muzaffarnagar ka naam badla jana hai. Muzaffarnagar ka naam Laxminagar logon ki pehle se maang hai. Muzaffarnagar naam ek nawab Muzaffar Ali ne kiya tha. Logon ki sadion se demand hai ki iska naam Laxminagar kiya jaaye (There are a lot of cities that need to be renamed. Muzaffarnagar needs to be renamed. There is a demand of people to change Muzaffarnagar's name to Laxminagar. A nawab, Muzaffar Ali, had changed the name of the city after him. There is a centuries-old demand of people to change its name back to Laxminagar."
"Mughals tried to purge our culture, especially Hindutva. We are working to save that culture. BJP will move ahead on this," the MLA said.
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