UP Minister Writes to Governor For Changing Allahabad's Name to Prayag

Lucknow: Cabinet Minister and Spokesperson of Yogi government Sidharth Nath Singh has written to Governor Ram Naik to consider changing the name of Allahabad to Prayag.

“UP Governor Ram Naik, who was then MP from Maharashtra, had helped in getting ‘Bombay’ to be renamed as ‘Mumbai’. I have written to him to consider renaming Allahabad as Prayag," said Singh.

As per the sources, the name of Allahabad may be changed this year itself as the city will be hosting Kumbh next year.

Earlier in May, a delegation of All India Akhada Parishad had met CM Yogi, when he was in Allahabad to announce the dates of the Shahi Snan, and had requested him to rename the city to Prayag.

President of All India Akhada Parishad, Mahant Narendra Giri, who led the delegation, said that the CM would soon pass a resolution in the cabinet to ensure the name change.

Speaking to News18 on the issue, Samajwadi Party MLC and Spokesperson, Sunil Singh Sajan said, “Why are cabinet ministers writing letter to Governor for renaming the city? They should bring the proposal to the cabinet and pass it. For last one year BJP is deceiving the saints by false promises. The BJP has forgotten that it is not in opposition and is in power, it can change the name within a day. The BJP is only interested in doing politics and not the work. We do not have any problem with the name of the city being changed."

The Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh also echoed the same sentiments and said that the government is free to do it, but the Yogi Adityanath government is interested in doing politics over it.

“We would welcome the step, but why has Yogi Adityanath government not changed the name till now?

Chief of All India Akhada Parishad, Mahant Narendra Giri said, “We do not want to get into any politics. All we demand is to get the old name of the city back. Nobody is opposing the move and we have been assured that CM Yogi will do it soon. We are surprised why the name has not been changed till now. We are going to meet CM Yogi over the issue once again and will demand to change the name of Allahabad to Prayag at the earliest."

The Yogi government recently renamed the Mughalsarai Station to Deen Dayal Upadhyay station after the party’s ideologue.