Shri Ayodhya? Faizabad Could be Next as Yogi Govt Continues to Rename Cities

Lucknow: After Allahabad, Faizabad could be the next city in Uttar Pradesh to be renamed. Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas are raising demands that Faizabad and Ayodhya be merged and renamed “Shri Ayodhya.”

VHP spokesperson Sharad Sharma said, “The decision by the Yogi Adityanath government to change the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj is commendable. Our governments should keep in mind the sentiments of the people and also change the name of Faizabad to Shri Ayodhya.”

Sharma said that the Yogi government, which had earlier constituted Ayodhya Faizabad Municipal Corporation last year, should take into consideration the demands of the seers in Faizabad and announce the renaming of the city during the ‘deeputsav’ held on Diwali.

Member of Central Advisory Board of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Purshottam Singh, too has echoed these sentiments. “When Allahabad can be renamed as Prayagraj then why can’t Faizabad be named Ayodhya? Both Faizabad district and Ayodhya must be merged and be renamed Ayodhya,” he said.

Allahabad officially became 'Prayagraj' on Tuesday, making it the third big name change that the Yogi Adityanath-led government has effected in Uttar Pradesh since coming to power one-and-half years ago.

The BJP government had earlier renamed two railway stations - one near Agra which was called Farah and another that used to be known as Mughalsarai junction - after the party ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

Allahabad’s ancient name was ‘Prayag’, but was changed after 16th-century Mughal emperor Akbar built a fort near ‘Sangam’, the holy confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati. He named the fort and its neighbourhood ‘Ilahabad’. Later, Akbar's grandson Shah Jahan renamed the entire city as ‘Allahabad’. But the area near the ‘Sangam’, the site of the Kumbh Mela, continues to be known as ‘Prayag’

The BJP government had earlier renamed two railway stations - one near Agra which was called Farah and another that used to be known as Mughalsarai junction - after the party ideologue Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

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