Will Lucknow's name be changed? CM Yogi Adityanath's tweet sparks speculation

Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath government is seemingly back to its name-changing spree. A tweet by CM Yogi Adityanath has sparked speculations that the government is gearing up to change the name of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh's capital.

In the tweet welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lucknow on Monday evening, Cm Yogi wrote, "Sheshavatar Bhagwan Laxman ki pawan nagri Lucknow mein aapka swagat aur abhinandan."

Check out the tweet here. 

May 16, 2022

It is this tweet that has led to a debate on social media about the name of Lucknow being changed to Laxmanpuri. A grand temple dedicated to Laxman is already being constructed in Lucknow.

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In the past, several BJP leaders have demanded a change in the name of Lucknow to Lakhanpuri or Laxmanpuri. Lucknow already has several landmarks named after Laxman and these include Laxman Tila, Laxmanpuri, and Laxman Park.

The Yogi Adityanath government in its previous term had changed the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj and Faizabad to Ayodhya. This led to a surge in demand for changing the names of several districts including Sultanpur to Kushbhawanpur, Aligarh to Harigarh, Mainpuri to Mayanpuri, and Sambhal to Prithviraj Nagar or Kalki Nagar, Firozabad to Chandranagar and Deoband to Devrand.

On the other hand, officials said that they were not yet aware of any proposal to rename Lucknow or any other city.