MUMBAI: The renaming of Elphinstone Road station as Prabhadevi has opened the floodgates for other temples and cultural institutions to raise a similar demand. The Shanmukhananda Sabha has proposed that neighbouring King's Circle station be called Shanmukha Rail Nilayam. Another temple trust wants Matunga to be rechristened after its deity Marubai .

In January 2017, the Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha wrote to the railway ministry. The trust's president V Shankar said on Monday, "Our demand conforms with the BJP government's policy to replace British names of locations and landmarks with Indian ones. Shanmukhananda Sabha is a 66-year-old institution that has been serving Mumbai through Indian classical music. We have also offered to turn the proposed Shanmukhananda Nilayam into India's first theme-based railway station. We will install music kiosks that give the feel of a live concert, craft musical murals and tableaux depicting various Indian instruments. It is better than renaming stations after people or on narrow considerations of religion, caste and clan."

But last week, Shiv Sena MP from the area, Rahul Shewale, beat them to it, proposing in Lok Sabha that King's Circle be rechristened Parshwa Dham given that a "vast Jain population" lives in the area. Shankar said is incorrect. "Our precinct is dominated by south Indians and Kutchis."

Shewale told TOI, "For two years, I have been receiving representations from the Jain community demanding that King's Circle station be named after the first Tirthankar, Parshvanath. There are many Jain colonies in King's Circle-Sion and the maximum number of derasars are located here. I did not receive any proposal from Shanmukhananda. I took the Jains' appeal to Parliament."

Shankar says that Sion has a different station, on another railway line and questions why the MP should club the two.

Over in Matunga (CR), the 300-year-old Marubai Gavdevi temple trust is making a similar appeal to the railway ministry. Managing trustee Anil Gavand claimed Matunga was derived from Marubai Tekdi Gaon, Ma Tun Ga. "The place where the station was built originally belonged to our temple. Our trust records show that the British acquired our land in 1888 for development purposes. Few people know of this deity, who has the power to heal any disease, although her temple is older than Siddhivinayak. We seek the station's renaming for the benefit of Mumbaikars. They can seek her blessings and get cured of ailments," he said. Amen.

