Delhi's Najafgarh, Mustafabad and Mohammadpur to get new names? Here's what BJP MLAs are demanding

Delhi assembly

Three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs on Thursday demanded to rename three areas of Delhi: Najafgarh to Nahargarh, Mohammadpur to Madhavpuram, and Mustafabad to Shiv Vihar.

Najafgarh to Nahargarh

Speaking during the assembly session, MLA Neelam Pahalwan said that the people of Najafgarh have faced oppression during the Mughal era.

“My assembly constituency is a rural constituency sharing border with Haryana. When Mughal emperor Shah Alam II took control of Najafgarh, people here suffered a lot. During the 1857 revolt, Raja Nahar Singh fought and brought the area into the Delhi province. We made several appeals … when Parvesh Verma was our MP, we tried a lot to change the name of Najafgarh to Nahargarh. I hope that the entire house, the chief minister and all of you will support me in this (renaming),” Pahalwan asserted.

Najafgarh was named after Mirza Najaf Khan, the commander-in-chief of the Mughal army under the ruler Shah Alam II in the 18th century.

The deputy speaker Mohan Singh Bish, MLA from Mustafabad, and Anil Sharma, MLA from RK Puram constituency, raised the demands of renaming their constituency while speaking to the media.

Mohammadpur to Madhavpuram

BJP MLA Anil Sharma that he will push to rename the Mohammadpur village in his constituency to Madhavpuram.

He informed that the proposal to change the name was passed a long ago, but it was pending in the assembly. “The corporation had passed a proposal to change the name of Madhavpuram village long ago. That proposal has been pending in the Assembly for a long time. Till now there was a government of the Aam Aadmi Party, they must have kept it buried somewhere. Now, I will get time for this issue tomorrow as I get time from the respected speaker. I will raise this issue,” Sharma told ANI.

Sharma also said that it is the residents of the village who want to change the name. Mohammadpur was named after Mohammad Khan, a landlord in the Lodi era.

Mustafabad to Shiv Vihar

On the other hand, Mohan Singh Bisht earlier stated that the name of Mustafabad would soon be changed to Shivpuri or Shiv Vihar. He won the seat by defeating AAP candidate Adeel Ahmad Khan by 17,578 votes.

“The official data in Mastafabad shows that Muslims are 45 per cent but wherever I have travelled, I witnessed that Muslims are 60 per cent and Hindus are 40 per cent. We will conduct a census and change the name of the area from Mustafabad to Shiv Vihar or Shivpuri,” Mohan Singh Bisht said.