Fate of Bhagyanagar rising’: Yogi’s tweet on GHMC election results stokes name row

Several BJP leaders used the name Bhagyanagar as they tweeted on the updates of GHMC election counting on Friday. After the results were announced which put BJP in the second position in Hyderabad’s local poll, ahead of local party AIMIM, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath took to Twitter and stoked the name row by saying, “The fate of Bhagyanagar is rising.” He mentioned Hyderabad as he referred to the election but referred to the people as “the people of Bhagyanagar” as he thanked them for showing confidence in PM Modi’s leadership.

Adityanath was in Hyderabad as part of BJP’s star-studded campaign. “”Some people were asking me if Hyderabad can be renamed as Bhagyanagar. I said - why not? I told them we renamed Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj after BJP came into power. Why can’t Hyderabad be renamed as Bhagyanagar?” he said during the campaigning.

The name comes from a small temple of Goddess Lakshmi, known as Bhagyalakshmi temple, adjacent to Charminar. Some BJP leaders have claimed the temple got its name from Bhagyanagar which was Hyderabad’s original name before it was changed to Hyderabad by Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah. The temple falls in the part of the city which is a stronghold of AIMIM.

The temple was at the centre of this year’s civic election from the beginning. During the beginning of the poll campaign, the State Election Commission ordered the government to stop receiving applications from rain-affected people for Rs 10,000 relief for which the TRS blamed the BJP. State BJP chief B Sanjay Kumar challenged that the Chief Minister to come to the Bhagyalakshmi temple, saying he was ready to take oath in the name of goddess in the presence of the CM, and he went to the temple. Union home minister Amit Shah too visited the temple when he was in Hyderabad for campaigning.HT