BJP leaders and the party's ideological mentor RSS have called for renaming the Telangana capital
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to Hyderabad as "Bhagyanagar", Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao posted a sharp reaction to a BJP leader talking about a name-change if the party comes to power in the state.
"Why don't you change Ahmedabad's name to Adanibad first? Who is this Jhumla Jeevi by the way," Mr Rao, or KTR, posted, referencing PM Modi's home state Gujarat and billionaire Gautam Adani in his response to comments by BJP leader Raghubar Das.
On Sunday, PM Modi, addressing a BJP leadership meet in Hyderabad, said it was in "Bhagyanagar" that Sardar Patel, the freedom fighter icon, had coined the term "Ek Bharat". The comments sparked speculation that a name-change was in the offing.
Several BJP leaders and the party's ideological mentor RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have called for renaming the Telangana capital as Bhagyanagar.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who campaigned for BJP candidates during Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation or GHMC election in 2020, had also urged voters to vote for the party "to transform Hyderabad into Bhagyanagar."
KTR was responding specifically to BJP leader Raghubar Das's comments on Friday on a question on renaming Hyderabad.
"Definitely. The way I am seeing it for the past two days, be it the businessmen or normal people, they have a lot of anger towards the TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) government. This is because this government believes in dynasty politics and thinks only about the family. They don't think about the welfare of the people of Telangana. So people are in favour of the BJP," Mr Das said, speaking to reporters on the weekend party meet.