Just weeks before the Telangana Assembly Elections received an official announcement, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday asserted that if the BJP wins the elections, they will rename the city of Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar. The BJP leader was seen addressing the crowd at a rally in the Goshamahal constituency in the city, accompanied by its party MLA Raja Singh.

Raja Singh is the standing MLA from Goshamahal and is widely defamed for making offensive statements in support of the communal violence. The party incumbent was legally accused several times of his repetitive misconduct.

Uttar Pradesh Chief, Yogi Adityanath, demanded votes from the residents of Telengana and requested for their support in their effort to transform Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar. He even said that while other parties are playing the game of vote bank politics, BJP is focussed on strict governance and comprehensive development. Yoga spoke in favour of Raja Singh and asked for votes from the public citing his contributions in representing public issues in Telangana assembly.

Just earlier this month, Raja Singh created a fresh round of controversy when he publicly expressed his view in renaming the city of Hyderabad as ‘Bhagyanagar’ is the BJP is voted to power in the state in the upcoming Telangana elections.

The history suggests that Bhagyanagar was the erstwhile name of Hyderabad, but in 1590, Quli Qutub Shah invaded the city, massacred Hindus, destroyed temples and Hindu shrines. Raja Singh in a press statement exclaimed that if BJP emerges as the prime power of the Telangana state post the assembly elections, then the party’s agenda is to bring about the development of the state and rechristen Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar. He said that BJP is working on changing the names Secunderabad and Karimnagar

The statement had come in the wake of the name changing incident of Faizabad to Ayodhya by Yogi Adityanath who believe that the identity of the district of Faizabad was Lord Ram.

The name ‘Bhagyanagar’ originates from the legend of ‘Bhagmati’, a woman dancer with whom Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah fell in love with.

The historical narration goes like this- Hyderabad was named ‘Bhagyanagar’ after the dancer, but when she married the king, she was converted to Islam, and adopted the name of Hyder Mahal, after which the city is presently named as ‘Hyderabad’. However,

there is a cloud of confusion surrounding this incident since the historians believe that such a queen existed in the city and there is no evidence that states the same

However, the name ‘Bhag Nagar’ which means ‘a city of gardens’, is worthy of notable mention.

Telangana polls will occur on December 7, and counting of votes take place on December 11.