The Yogi Adityanath government is likely to change the name of Sultanpur to Kush Bhawanpur after Lord Ram’s son Kush.
Well placed sources in the Board of Revenue confirmed that a proposal to this effect has been sent to the state government and it is likely to be placed before the cabinet for approval soon.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Devmani Dwivedi, who represents Lambhua constituency in Sultanpur, had raised the issue in the Vidhan Sabha in 2018. Later, the district magistrate of Sultanpur and Ayodhya divisional commissioner had recommended that the state government and the Board of Revenue rename the district as Kush Bhawanpur, referring to Sultanpur’s ancient history.
If the proposal is approved, Sultanpur will become the third district in Uttar Pradesh to be renamed by the Yogi government after Faizabad became Ayodhya and Allahabad was renamed Prayagraj.
In March 2019, the then Governor Ram Naik had written to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath requesting the renaming of Sultanpur to Kush Bhawanpur.
Naik had said in the letter that he met a delegation from Sultanpur which presented him a book on Sultanpur's history and demanded renaming of the district to Kush Bhawanpur “to restore its past glory”.
Earlier this month, the zila panchayat of Aligarh passed a resolution suggesting that Aligarh be renamed as Harigarh. According to Aligarh zila panchayat chairman Vijay Singh, "It is a long-pending demand to rename Aligarh as Harigarh. The zila panchayat approved the proposal unopposed. It would now be forwarded to the state government for approval."
Meanwhile, the Mainpuri zila panchayat has passed a resolution to rename Mainpuri as Mayan Nagar in honour of sage Mayan, who founded the present day Mainpuri.
In a letter to UP Urban Development Minister Ashutosh Tandon, west UP Bajrang Dal unit requested that Deoband, a sub-division of Saharanpur district and home to Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, be renamed Devvrand. Ruling party legislator from Deoband, Brijesh Singh, has been raising the demand since 2017.
Besides these districts, there is also demand for renaming of Firozabad district as Chandra Nagar and Ghazipur as Gadhipur. BJP spokesman Naveen Srivastava has already submitted a proposal to this effect to the state government.
There is also the demand for renaming Basti district as Vashishaht Nagar and Mirzapur as Vindhya Dham. Also, BJP MLA from Shahjahanpur, Vikaram Singh, has also been demanding renaming of Khudaganj development block in the district after freedom fighter Thakur Roshan Singh.