Hyderabad: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state is reiterating its demand to rename Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar as usual. However, this time, the saffron party is also targetting the names of five other cities across Telangana, demanding name changes.
Last month, Telangana BJP MLA from Nizamabad Urban Assembly seat, Dhanpal Suryanarayana in the state Assembly proposed name changes for Nizamabad, Adilabad, and Warangal.
He said that since the Congress-led state government has taken a call to change the state’s abbreviation on the vehicle registration plates from TS to TG and the state’s emblem, “it has to continue that practice by renaming Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar, Nizamabad to Induru, Adilabad to Edulrapuram and Warangal to Orguallu.”
The MLA said that the demand to rename these cities has been “pending for a long time.”
Adding to the list, the BJP has proposed changing the names of Mahbubnagar to Palamoor and Karimnagar to Karipuram, on various occasions.
The BJP’s Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat candidate Kompella Madhavi Latha recently claimed that Hyderabad had always been named ‘Bhagyanagar’.
“Nothing can go wrong if Hyderabad is renamed Bhagyanagar,” she said in an interview with News 18.
Latha appealed to the people of Hyderabad to give her a chance, saying, “Kabhi toh mauka dijiye… (Give us a chance too).”
Throwing an open challenge to the four-time AIMIM’s Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, the BJP candidate said that she will make a dent in a constituency where Muslim voters call the shots.
She said, referring to Owaisi, “Bhaiya ab bhaari humari hai. 40 saal de diya (Brother, it is our turn now. We gave you 40 years.”
Hyderabad or Bhagyanagar: Not the first time for BJP
This is not the first time the BJP has made such contentious demands.
They are part of the BJP’s efforts to rename places with historical or cultural significance, often with a focus on Hindu names or to remove Islamic references.
During the Assembly polls in 2023, the BJP’s state party chief and Union minister, G Kishan Reddy, had stated that Hyderabad will be renamed Bhagyanagar if the BJP is voted into power, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other senior leaders of the party have supported this demand.
BJP MP D Arvind has advocated for Nizamabad to be renamed Indur, claiming that the current name is “inauspicious”.
