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On Monday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced that 15 locations would be renamed in the districts of Haridwar, Dehradun, Nainital, and Udham Singh Nagar as per "the public sentiment and Indian culture and heritage". Dhami said that this would motivate the people by recognizing their contribution to keeping Indian culture.

In Haridwar district, Aurangzebpur will be renamed as Shivaji Nagar, Gajiwali will be changed to Arya Nagar, Chandpur will be Jyotiba Phule Nagar, Mohammadpur Jat to Mohanpur Jat, Khanpur Kursli to Ambedkar Nagar, Idrishpur to Nandpur, Khanpur as Shri Krishna Pur, and Akbarpur Fazalpur to Vijayanagar.

Miyanwala has been renamed as Ramji Wala, Pirwala has been renamed as Kesari Nagar, Chandpur Khurd has become Prithviraj Nagar, and Abdullahpur has now been renamed to Daksh Nagar within the Dehradun District.

In Nainital district, Nawabi Road will be named Atal Marg, and the road from Panchakki to the ITI will be named Guru Golwalkar Marg. The Sultanpur Patti municipal council in Udham Singh Nagar is set to be renamed Kaushalya Puri.

The BJP proclaimed it a "historic decision" in tune with the sentiments of the masses, culture, and heritage. "The Bharatiya Janata Party welcomes this decision. On the one hand, this decision will inspire people by honouring the great personalities who contributed to the preservation of Indian culture, while on the other hand, it will also make them aware of the atrocities committed by foreign invaders," Manveer Chauhan, state media in-charge for the BJP, stated.

The Congress claimed it would neither support nor oppose the change. The former chief minister and Congress leader, Harish Rawat, said, “Changing names has become the BJP’s agenda since they have nothing to show in terms of real work. The last eight-and-a-half years have been a complete failure, and the public has been questioning them. To distract the public, they are indulging in this spectacle of changing names.”

The renaming of these places in Uttarakhand is more than just a change of signboards, it’s about how history is remembered and who gets honored. For the BJP, it’s a way to reclaim India’s cultural heritage, while the opposition sees it as a diversion from real governance issues. Beyond politics, these changes will impact local communities, from updating official records to shaping public identity. The real question is whether such moves bring people together or deepen divides. Only time will tell how these decisions shape the state’s future.

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