UP's 'Azamgarh' to be changed to 'Aryamgarh'? CM Yogi Adityanath drops hint

Accompanied by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath on Saturday hinted at changing the name of Azamgarh to Aryamgarh. While laying the foundation stone of a state university in Azamgarh, Yogi Adityanath said that the educational institute will truly turn district into Aryamgarh. 

"The university, the foundation stone of which I laid today, will turn Azamgarh to Aryamgarh, and there should be no doubt about it," the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister reiterated in a post of the foundation laying ceremony. In the post, he had also embedded a video of the speech he delivered during the ceremony, in which he had hinted at a name change. 

Ahead of the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, in a bid to increase the political mileage of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, CM Yogi Adityanath has embarked on a name-changing spree again, besides Azamgarh, Sultanpur, Mirzapur, Aligarh, Firozabad and Mainpuri are on the list for a name change. Meanwhile, proposals for changing the name of Ghazipur and Bastipur have also been put forth. Earlier, Yogi Adityanath had changed the name of Allahabad to Prayagraj and Faizabad to Ayodhya. 

BJP preps for 2022 assembly elections 

Hoping to replicate its 2017 performance in 2022, the BJP appointed Dharmendra Pradhan as its election in charge and Anurag Thakur, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Shobha Karandlaje, Annapurna Devi, Saroj Pandey and Vivek Thakur as the co-in-charges. Meanwhile, Sanjay Bhatia, Sanjeev Chaurasiya, Y Satya Kumar, Sudhir Gupta, Arvind Menon and Sunil Oza as the organizational in-charges of Western UP, Braj, Awadh, Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Kashi.

Under the in-charges and co-in charges, BJP has started its online campaigns to increase its social media presence and ensure the party's victory in the elections. It is currently running four campaigns in Uttar Pradesh under various slogans and the main slogan of BJP is 'Soch Imanadar, Kaam Damdaar, Fir Ek Baar BJP Sarkar' for the 2022 state Assembly elections. The other campaigns are 'Farq Saaf hai' that focuses on the difference between the current and the previous governments, 'Bhule Toh Nahe` that mentions incidents of riots that took place at the time of the previous governments and `Joh Kaha So Kiya` focuses on the promises fulfilled by the Yogi Adityanath government. 

The term of the incumbent government will expire on May 14, 2022. Before that, likely in the month of February-March, Uttar Pradesh will go for polls to elect 403 members of the Legislative Assembly.