Maya attacks Akhilesh for changing names of eight districts

Lucknow, July 23 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party's Uttar Pradesh government Monday changed the names of eight districts renamed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a move that evoked strong protest from former chief minister Mayawati. She described it as an insult to Dalits and their sentiments.

Mayawati slammed the SP for "insulting the Dalit icons and leaders" by doing so and said that by this decision both Mulayam Singh Yadav and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav earned a 'black spot' for themselves in history.

"It is indeed saddening that the state government has whimsically changed the names, riding roughshod over sentiments of millions of downtrodden Dalits by changing the names of these districts which were kept after these towering Dalit icons," Mayawati said.

The SP-led state government should be prepared to bear the consequences of this hasty action, the BSP supremo said.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The districts whose names have been reverted to their original names include Bhimnagar (now Bahjoi), Panchsheelnagar (now Hapur), Jyotiba Phule Nagar (now Amroha), Mahamaya Nagar (now Hathras), Kanshiram Nagar (now Kasganj) and Ramabainagar (now Kanpur Dehat).

Prabudhnagar gets back its original name Shamli.

The name of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar district has been changed to Gauriganj. It is part of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency Amethi.

The cabinet also changed the name of the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University and reverted to its original name, the King George Medical University.

All these were election promises made by the Samajwadi party during the poll campaign.

BSP supremo and former UP chief minister Mayawati, in her various stints in power, created 15 new districts in UP, naming them after Dalit icons.