Mayawati hails Sant Ravidas Nagar name revival, seeks more
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Friday, July 31, welcomed the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to restore the name of Bhadohi district as Sant Ravidas Nagar and urged it to revive the original names of other districts created during the BSP regime.
In a post on X, Mayawati said the BSP government had created the district as Sant Ravidas Nagar to honour Dalit saint Guru Ravidas, and thanked the current Uttar Pradesh government for restoring the name after it was changed by the Samajwadi Party government, which she said had acted "due to its narrow casteist mindset."
Mayawati said the four BSP governments in Uttar Pradesh had created several new districts, tehsils, development blocks, police zones and ranges to strengthen administration and improve public welfare, with many named after saints, gurus and prominent personalities from Dalit and Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities.
She alleged the Samajwadi Party government had renamed districts such as Sant Ravidas Nagar, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar and Bhim Nagar because of "its casteist thinking, prejudice and narrow politics," and said "people will never forget" those decisions.
Referring to Kanshiram Nagar, Mayawati said the BSP government had created the district for the development of the Kasganj region and named it after BSP founder Kanshi Ram, a name she said was later changed by the Samajwadi Party government.
The BSP chief urged the Yogi Adityanath government to restore the original names of all districts named after Kanshi Ram and other prominent personalities, suggesting the decision be taken on or before October 9, the death anniversary of Kanshi Ram. She said the BSP would remain grateful if the government did so.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had announced on Wednesday that Bhadohi district would once again be known as Sant Ravidas Nagar. The announcement was made at the launch of the BJP's "Samarasta Sankalp Abhiyan" programme in Varanasi, seen as the party's major Dalit outreach initiative ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Adityanath had said the move was intended to honour the legacy of Guru Ravidas, and accused the Samajwadi Party government, which renamed the district as Bhadohi in 2014, of sidelining India's saints and prominent personalities while glorifying figures such as Babur and Aurangzeb.
Responding to the development, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said changing names had become a habit of the BJP government, and asserted that people had made up their minds to change the Yogi Adityanath-led government itself in the 2027 assembly elections.
(With inputs from PTI)
