The Zila Panchayat of Aligarh unanimously has passed a resolution to rename Aligarh as Harigarh.
By Vaishali Pandey
The Zila Panchayat of Aligarh has recently passed a resolution demanding that Aligarh be renamed Harigarh. According to members of the Zila Panchayat, it has been a ‘long-pending demand’. 50 members of the zila panchayat voted in favour of renaming the communally charged district at its first meeting.
The resolution would be sent to state government for the final decision.
Apart from changing Aligarh to Harigarh, the chairman of the Zila Panchayat, Vijay Singh, wife of BJP Braj Prant Vice President Shyoraj Singh said that the Aligarh airport has also been approved to be renamed.
“The airport should be named after Kalyan Singh, the BJP politician and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh during Ram Janmabhoomi movement,“ she said to news agency ANI.
Firozabad and Mainpuri also to be renamed
Earlier, the Zila Panchayat of Mainpuri approved a resolution to rename Mainpuri as Mayan Nagar after the name of sage Mayan, who founded Mainpuri. According to Archana Bhadoria, the Zila Panchayat chairperson, “this motion was passed with 23 members in favour and two opposing it.”
As of earlier this month, the Firozabad District Panchayat also approved the district being renamed Chandra Nagar in honour of King Chandra Sen, who resided in Firozabad at the time.
Another important aspect of the resolution is that it comes just before the state’s next assembly elections, which will take place in 2022.
The rebranding of Muslim-named cities in Uttar Pradesh to Hindi names and non-muslim icons is the latest in a series of renamings.
It was majorly started when the BJP-led state administration of Yogi Adityanath renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj, Faizabad as Ayodhya, and Mughalsarai as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay in 2018, just before general elections 2019. It is all done to reinforce the Hindu identity in Uttar Pradesh.
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