Yogi Adityanath

LUCKNOW: During an election rally earlier this year at Hasanpur in Amroha, BJP 's star campaigner -and now UP chief minister - Yogi Adityanath had said: “Maine yahan aatey samay kisi se poocchha ki karyakram kahan hai. Aur jab mujhe pata laga ki karyakram Hasanpur mein hai toh maine socha Uttar Pradesh mein Hasanpur kyun (While on my way here, I inquired where the programme was. I was told it's in Hasanpur. I pondered on why is there a Hasanpur in Uttar Pradesh)“. With Aditya Nath Yogi, the penchant for renaming places is not new. As controversy rages over the move to rename Mughalsarai after Jan Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhayay, old timers in the CM's Lok Sabha constituency of Gorakhpur recall his habit of “declaring“ new names for places in the area. The five-time MP had advocated calling Urdu Bazaar as Hindi Bazaar, Humayunpur as Hanuman Nagar, Mian Bazaar as Maya Bazaar and Alinagar as Aryanagar.

However, the new names were not official as they were never ratified by the Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation. People recall Yogi giving these names during his rallies and sabhas in Gorakhpur and people picking them up.

Several shopkeepers in Urdu Bazaar had even put up 'Hindi Bazaar' signboards. Similarly, ' Maya Nagar ' boards had come up at Mian Bazaar. Political observers now wonder if these names would now be ratified by the municipal corporation.

