Aligarh: The Samajwadi Party (SP) Tuesday held widespread protests in Aligarh following the local civic body’s nod to changing the city’s name to ‘Harigarh’.
Leaders of Uttar Pradesh’s main opposition party alleged that the BJP had barrelled its agenda through on the basis of its hairline majority in the Aligarh Municipal Corporation.
SP corporator Aslam Noor told ThePrint there was no “proposal” to change the name of the city, only a “suggestion” by BJP corporator Sanjay Pandit. He claimed this was suddenly accepted by the mayor as a proposal, and despite opposition from SP councillors, was passed by voice vote.
Noor added the SP was not protesting the name change but the complete disregard of procedure. He claimed the proposal was supposed to be sent first to the state government.
The leader further pointed out that the BJP has as many councillors in the municipality as the SP, Congress, BSP and others — each side has 45 representatives — but it scored over the Opposition by one seat, that of the Mayor’s.
Noor also said they had asked for footage of the House proceedings when the proposal was “passed” on 6 November.
Meanwhile, Aligarh Mayor Prashant Singhal told ThePrint that BJP corporator Sanjay Pandit had indeed given a suggestion, which was unanimously forwarded by the municipal corporation to the state government as a proposal.
“There was no opposition to the proposal in the House at that time and it was decided to forward it to the government,” he said, accusing the Opposition of creating an “unnecessary fuss” over the issue.
Asked if the Aligarh Muslim University would also be renamed, the Mayor said that could also be a possibility but only if district representatives took that decision.
Aligarh was earlier called Ramgarh, according to the Uttar Pradesh government website. In the mid 1700s, the city was christened Aligarh after its most important fort.
The first attempt to change its name was made by former chief minister Kalyan Singh in 1992, but that did not hold water since there was a Congress government at the Centre.
In 2015, right-wing group Vishwa Hindu Parishad also pushed for Aligarh’s rechristening, claiming the city was originally called Harigarh.