Yogi hints at renaming Azamgarh ahead of UP LS bypolls, dubs SP-BSP as 'Rahu-Ketu'

Barely days ahead of the Lok Sabha bypoll at Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath hinted at changing the name of the district to 'Aryangarh' in an apparent bid to woo the electorate.

Addressing an election meeting at Azamgarh on Sunday, Adityanath dubbed the Samajwadi Party (SP), its main rival in the bypoll, and the BSP as 'Rahu-Ketu' (shadow planets considered to be ill auspicious in the Hindu mythology) and asked the people not to support them.

"Time has come for you (electorate) to be associated with the change of name of Azamgarh to Aryangarh...don't let the district become Atankarg (hub of terrorism)," the chief minister said.

He also said that the SP and BSP governments in the past had never allowed the district to prosper and only tried to fill their own coffers. "These two parties (SP, BSP) are like Rahu and Ketu, they can never do anything good", he added.

Bypolls at Azamgarh and Rampur seats would be held on June 23. The bypolls had been necessitated after SP president Akhilesh Yadav and his party leader Azam Khan resigned from Azamgarh and Rampur seats respectively after being elected to the UP assembly.

BJP has fielded Bhojpuri film actor Dinesh Lal Yadav alias Nirahua from Azamgarh while Akhilesh's cousin Dharmendra Yadav is the SP nominee. BSP has fielded Guddu Jamali from the seat.

Adityanath, in his first stint as CM, had rechristened Faizabad railway station as Ayodhya Cantt and Allahabad as Prayagraj. The saffron outfits had been pressing the state government to change the names of Sultanpur, Mirzapur, Aligarh, Firozabad and Mainpuri. Such a demand had been during the first term of Adityanath. There was also a proposal to change the names of Ghazipur and Basti districts.