Lucknow, October 16: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj ahead of the Kumbh Mela, which is set to begin in January 2019.  Uttar Pradesh Minister Siddharth Nath Singh confirmed the news and said 'Allahabad to be called Prayagraj from today'.  Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday had announced that Allahabad will be renamed ahead of the Ardh Kumbh Mela in January next year.

Adityanath had said that the decision to rename Allahabad came after the Akhada Parishad gave a proposal for the same. He informed that Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik has also given his consent on the same. The Chief Minister said the word 'Prayag' represents the confluence of two or more rivers and said Allahabad should be named Prayagraj, the king of five prayags — Nand, Vishnu, Rudra, Karna and Dev, which will represent the confluence of different forms of the Ganga.

It must be noted that Allahabad was named so in 1575 by Mughal Emperor Akbar. Akbar had named it as Illahabas 443 years ago. But, before Akbar rechristened it, Allahabad was known as Prayad. Allahabad to Turn 'Prayagraj': Justice Markandey Katju Asks Yogi Adityanath to Rename Other Mughal-Era Cities as Well, Submits List.

The decision of changing the name had drawn protests from the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav blamed Adityanath for taking credit by just renaming cities. “Raja Harshvardhan made ‘Prayag Kumbh’ great by offering donations, but today’s rulers are trying to take credit for the work just by renaming the city to ‘Prayagraj’,” Akhilesh had tweeted on Monday.

Meanwhile,  Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Onkarnath Singh also stated that changing the name of the historic city to ‘Prayagraj’ is an attempt to toy with the history of the nation. Singh further added that there is already an area which is called ‘Prayag’, there was no need to rename ‘Allahabad’ as ‘Prayagraj’.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 16, 2018 12:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).