After Allahabad and Faizabad, now Agra to be renamed as 'Agravan' or 'Agrawal,' demands BJP leaders

BJP leaders have started a spree of cities 'name changing' in Uttar Pradesh and moving beyond it. Now, after renaming Allahabad as Prayagraj, Faizabad district as Ayodhya and Mughalsarai after Deen Dayal Upadhyay by the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government, BJP leaders demanded to rename Agra as "Agravan" or "Agrawal".

"Agra has no meaning. You check the name Agra anywhere, what relevance does it have? Earlier there used to be a lot of forests here. And people from the Agarwal community used to live here. So the name should be Agra-van or Agra-wal," Mr Garg said at a press conference in the city earlier Saturday.

Mr Garg represents the Agra North constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Further, another BJP leaders from Sardana add to the demand for renaming cities Sangeet Som, who wants the name of Muzaffarnagar to be changed to Laxmi Nagar. He claimed that the demand has come from the public.

His other justification is more contentious. "BJP is just trying to bring back the culture of India, which was deliberately changed by the Muslim rulers to end Hindutva. Therefore BJP is working just to safeguard and retain the Indian culture back by renaming the cities with their original names (sic)," Mr Som was quoted by Asian News International as saying.

"The names of many cities are yet to be changed," he added. However, the BJP's 'renaming cities row' have been receiving mixed reactions. "What kind of an agenda is this? How can you obliterate Faizabad and Allahabad? This is the politics of hate and polarisation," said Deepak Kabir, a social activist and theatre personality based in Lucknow.

'BJP is only trying to hide its failures,' Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav alleged.

"There is a history behind the name of every city...The BJP is busy in doing things which have nothing to do with the progress and development of the country," he said in a statement, condemning the exercise.

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