After the renaming of multiple cities such as Allahabad and Faizabad, it seems that Aligarh might soon be renamed as well after The Aligarh Municipal Council unanimously passed a resolution to change the name of the city to Harigarh. This proposal to change the name was brought forward by Mayor Prashant Sanghal in a meeting yesterday which was supported by all the councillors.

The onus is now on the Uttar Pradesh government who will have to give the green light to this proposal which will rename Aligarh to Harigarh. One of the most recent high-profile examples of renaming cities was when Allahabad was renamed to Prayagraj, adding the tally of cities renamed in the Yogi Adityanath ruled state.

"In a meeting yesterday, a proposal was presented to change the name of Aligarh to Harigarh. All councillors unanimously supported this. Now, this proposal will be sent to the administration. I hope that the administration will take cognizance of this and fulfill our demand to change the name of Aligarh to Harigarh...This demand has been being raised for a long time," Aligarh mayor Prashant Singhal said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

A proposal to rename Aligarh to Harigarh was cleared by a zila panchayat meeting in 2021 and sent to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In 2019, Chief Minister Adityanath indicated that his government will keep up with its spree of renaming places across the state.

"We did what we felt was good. We renamed Mughal Sarai as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Nagar, Allahabad as Prayagraj and Faizabad district as Ayodhya district. Where there is a need, the government will take the steps required," Yogi Adityanath had said.

The state government can change the name of any city or area within the state after the local municipal corporation passes a resolution unanimously, approving a name change and writes to the state government. The Home Ministry department of the state government then makes the call whether to change the name of the place or not officially.

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