Lucknow to be Renamed? BJP MP Writes to Amit Shah to 'Preserve India's Cultural Heritage'

New Delhi: In order to "preserve India's cultural heritage", a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (February 7, 2023) wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and requested to change the name of Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow to "Lakhanpur" or "Laxmanpur". Stating that the city was earlier named Lakhanpur and Laxmanpur in the "Treta Yuga", Sangam Lal Gupta, a BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh, claimed that Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula had renamed it to Lucknow. In a letter, which he shared on his official Twitter account and tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Gupta said that Lucknow was gifted by Lord Ram to his brother and King of Ayodhya Laxman in the Treta Yug, which is why the city was known as Lakhanpur and Laxmanpur.

"Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, which according to the local belief was gifted by Maryada Purushottam Lord Shri Ram to Ayodhya King Shri Laxman ji in Treta Yug and for that reason it was named Lakhanpur and Laxmanpur, but later in the 48th century, Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula renamed and changed it to Lucknow. It has been called Lucknow in the same tradition," he said. 

"It is worth mentioning here that today in a country rich in glorious cultural heritage, it seems completely wrong to give a signal of slavery by telling stories of luxury and wastefulness of the Nawabs of Lucknow to our future generation even in the 'Amrit Kaal'. Due to this, Lord Dalhousie acquired Awadh and merged it with the British Empire, and Nawab Wajid Ali Shah accepted British subordination," the BJP lawmaker wrote in his letter to Amit Shah.

"I request you to change the name of the capital of Uttar Pradesh Lucknow to Lakhanpur or Laxmanpur in Amrit Kaal in order to preserve India's cultural heritage and combine the glorious history by erasing the symbol of slavery," Gupta said in a tweet in Hindi.

भारत की सांस्कृतिक विरासत को संजोये रखने एवं गुलामी की दास्तां के प्रतीक को मिटाकर गौरवशाली इतिहास के संयोजन हेतु अमृत कालखण्ड में उत्तर प्रदेश की राजधानी लखनऊ का नाम परिवर्तित कर लखनपुर या लक्ष्मणपुर किये जाने का अनुरोध किया@narendramodi @AmitShah @myogiadityanath pic.twitter.com/2lIG3GktBH — Sangam Lal Gupta (@mpsangamlal) February 7, 2023