Ahmedabad's renaming: As the Centre has taken a keen interest in changing the names of a few cities in the country, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has decided to launch a campaign to demand the renaming Ahmedabad be renamed as 'Karnavati.'
According to reports, a proposal to launch the campaign to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati' was passed during a district-level students' convention organised by the ABVP in the city on Tuesday, February 7.
The proposal was passed at 'chhatra sammelan'
"The proposal was passed by 5,000 students at a 'chhatra sammelan' (students' convention) organised here to rename Ahmedabad as Karnavati.
We will submit a memorandum to the mamlatdar (revenue officer), collector, principals of colleges, and wherever we feel required to press for our demand," ABVP's Gujarat secretary Yuti Gajre told the media.
The move comes nearly five years after the then Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was willing to change Ahmedabad's name to 'Karnavati' if it gets past the legal hurdles and receives the required support.
Congress terms it propaganda
Meanwhile, Congress claimed the issue of renaming Ahmedabad was being brought up by the right-wing student organisation as propaganda to distract the attention of youth from the more pressing issue of question paper leak which recently led to the cancellation of the panchayat junior clerk exam.
Youth Congress spokesperson Kapil Desai said such "propaganda" was meant to distract the attention of students and youth from more relevant issues affecting them.
"The BJP is in power at every level, and if the ABVP is really serious about renaming Ahmedabad as Karnavati, then it would get it done without any difficulty, like (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath does every now and then," Desai said, as per PTI.
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BJP MP demands renaming Lucknow
Earlier on Tuesday, February 7, Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh BJP MP Sangam Lal Gupta demanded the government to rename Lucknow as 'Lakhanpur' or 'Lakshmanpur' saying that the Mughals had changed the city's name.
"During the Mughal era, Lucknow was known as Lakshmanpuri. The Mughals changed the name of the city to Lucknow, the city of Nawabs. I demand from the government that Lucknow should be renamed as Lakhanpuri or Lakshmanpuri," BJP MP Sangam Lal Gupta said.
(With inputs from PTI)
