The civic authorities of Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh have passed a resolution to change the name of the district to Harigarh, a longstanding demand of Hindutva organisations.

Prashant Singhal, the mayor of the Aligarh Nagar Nigam, said: “The proposal to change the name from Aligarh to Harigarh was tabled at the meeting of the Nigam on Monday and passed on Tuesday with the support of the majority of the corporators.”

“We are sending the resolution to the state government so that the decision can be made official,” Singhal said.

Forty-five BJP members and four Independents in the 90-member Nagar Nigam or municipal corporation supported the move.

Satish Gautam, the BJP MP of Aligarh, said: “We are moving forward with our agenda of establishing and strengthening sanatan tradition in the country. This demand was raised first many decades ago. Many people organised signature campaigns for this but it is the first time that the municipal corporation has agreed to it.”

The zilla panchayat of Aligarh had passed a similar resolution and sent it to the state government in August 2021.

Gautam said: “The zilla panchayat had passed this more than two years ago but since the Nagar Nigam has also done so now, it would be easy for the Yogi Adityanath government to take the final decision. However, it is entirely up to the chief minister and his cabinet to decide when and how to implement this.”

Aligarh is home to Aligarh Muslim University. When the BJP government had changed to name of Allahabad to Prayagraj in January 2019, the executive council of the University of Allahabad had voted against changing its name.

In Aligarh on August 21 this year, deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had referred to locals as “Harigarh walon (residents of Harigarh)”.

“Arre Harigarh walon, tez awaz mein bolo, Jai Sri Ram (Residents of Harigarh, chant loudly — Jai Sri Ram),” the BJP leader had said at a public meeting.

Lord Krishna is called Hari. Mathura, which is considered the birthplace of Krishna, is 66km south of Aligarh.

Changing the Muslim-sounding names of cities has been a key agenda of the BJP government.