Amidst the speculation that the name of Agra may soon be changed to Agravan, demands are being made to change the name of Aligarh by its ancient name ‘Harigarh’.
According to the reports, the BJP lawmakers have now requested the Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh government to rename the city of Aligarh into ‘Harigarh’. Speaking to the media, Aligarh MP Satish Gautam has reiterated the demand to rename the city by stating that Harigarh was the ancient name of the city. He said the demands have been made for a very long time now.
Local BJP MLA Sanjeev Raja also stated that the name of the city was changed to Aligarh during the Mughal period. In 2015, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad had also insisted about renaming Aligarh as Harigarh. Aligarh was named after Mughal governor Najaf Ali Khan
Read: Agravan when? UP govt asks historians to check if Agra city was ever known by any other name
BJP leaders also added that the idea to change the name of Aligarh was first mooted by the then UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in 1992. However, his attempts were thwarted by the then Congress government at the centre. With Modi government back at the centre, the hopes to restore the name of the place has been revived yet again.
Two days back, there were reports that the Yogi Adityanath government had asked historians and experts asked to look into the matter of change of the circumstances in which the name of the city of Agra was renamed into the present form. Last year, BJP MLA from Agra North, Jagan Prasad Garg, had requested the Chief Minister to change the name of the city to Agravan soon after Faizabad and Allahabad were renamed as Ayodhya and Prayagraj respectively.