Almost three years after the Uttar Pradesh government renamed the Faizabad district as Ayodhya, its railway station, too, has been named after the neighbouring temple town. “UP CM Shri @myogiadityanath has decided to rename Faizabad railway junction as Ayodhya Cantt,” the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) informed in a tweet on Saturday.
This is yet another name-change exercise undertaken by the Uttar Pradesh government. Besides renaming Faizabad as Ayodhya, which it did in November 2018 on the occasion of Diwali, the ruling dispensation, in October that year, changed Allahabad’s name to Prayagraj. Similarly, in June 2018, the over century old Mughalsarai railway station was renamed after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay.
The RSS is the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power both in the state and the Centre.
In recent years, several groups in Uttar Pradesh have demanded the change in names of various other districts as well. These include Azamgarh to Aryamgarh, Aligarh to Harigarh, Agra to Agravan etc.
Saturday’s announcement by the UP CMO comes just months before the northern state goes to polls. One of the major issues during the assembly elections, which are expected to take place in February-March 2022, is likely to be the Ram Mandir, currently under construction in Ayodhya.
