Lucknow: The Aligarh Municipal Corporation has unanimously approved a proposal to change the city's name to Harigarh, following in the footsteps of Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj in 2019. Mayor Prashant Singhal presented the proposal, which received unanimous support from all councillors during a meeting. The proposal will now be sent to the administration for consideration.

In Uttar Pradesh, a state government can change the name of any city or area within the state. After a municipal body unanimously approves a proposed name change resolution, it is forwarded to the state government, which then sends it to the Ministry of Home Affairs for final approval. If approved, the state government can officially change the name.

The proposal to rename Aligarh to Harigarh had been previously cleared by a zila panchayat meeting in 2021 and sent to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In 2019, Chief Minister Adityanath expressed his government's commitment to renaming places across the state, as seen with the renaming of Mughal Sarai as Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Nagar, Allahabad as Prayagraj, and Faizabad district as Ayodhya district.

The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, led by Yogi Adityanath since March 2017, has initiated numerous name changes for projects and schemes initiated by previous governments, such as renaming the Purvanchal Expressway. The ruling party members have also proposed renaming other cities like Agra and Muzaffarnagar. The trend of renaming cities and districts in the state continues, reflecting the government's approach to align with its ideological and cultural preferences.

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