Telangana Minister K T Rama Rao, on Sunday, 3 July, took a dig at the BJP over his recent remarks on changing Hyderabad's name to Bhagyanagar.
"Why don’t you change Ahmedabad’s name to Adanibad first?" the minister asked in his tweet.
He was responding to a report by ANI which quoted BJP leader and former chief mister of Jharkhand, Raghubar Das saying Hyderabad’s name will be changed to “Bhagyanagar” if his party comes to power.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address at the BJP's national executive meeting on 3 July, also referred to the state capital as 'Bhagyanagar' leading to speculation that the city would be renamed.
The remarks come at a time when the state is inching closer towards the assembly elections in 2023.
'Hyderabad Is Bhagyanagar': BJP
In his address at the national executive meeting, the PM had referred to Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar. Later, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad elaborated on the Prime Minister's comment.
"PM Modi said that Hyderabad is Bhagyanagar which is of significance for all of us. Sardar Patel kept the foundation of a unified India and now it's BJP's responsibility to carry it further," Prasad said.
The BJP has often claimed that Hyderabad's name was once Bhagyanagara. In 2020, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had also pitched for the renaming of the capital while campaigning for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.
The names of several towns and villages have been changed in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country in the recent past.
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