Gurgaon: AAP's Gurgaon candidate Yogendra Yadav has a Muslim name too. His family and close friends call him 'Salim', while one of his sisters, Neelam, is known as 'Najma'. Yadav said he was named Salim by his father as a "secular response" to the murder of his grandfather Ram Singh in a communal riot in 1936.
"My grandfather was a school headmaster. He was killed trying to stop a Muslim mob from entering the school. My father was seven years old then. He also witnessed another massacre during the Partition.
It was after that he decided to give his children Muslim names," Yadav said.
However, due to societal pressure, Salim's official name was changed to Yogendra at the age of five.
Aam Aadmi Party leader leader Ramzan Chaudhary, who did not know about it earlier, said he was confused when Yadav's family members called him Salim.
