Lakhimpur Kheri (UP), April 11 Shortly after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that the village of Miyanpur would be renamed Ravindra Nagar in honor of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, the residents of Miyanpur expressed their support for the change on Saturday.
Speaking at an event in Miyanpur, Adityanath distributed land ownership rights certificates to Hindu families displaced from Bangladesh and declared that Miyanpur would henceforth be known as Ravindra Nagar.
Attacking the Congress party, the chief minister said, "Look at the Congress' wrongdoing. They continued to take your votes but never granted you ownership rights. To hide your identity, they named this village Miyanpur. Just consider, there isn't even a single 'miyaan' here, yet the name is Miyanpur. Now, this hamlet, where our friends from Bangladesh have settled, will be called Ravindra Nagar. Your identity will now be associated with Rabindranath Tagore, the writer of our National Anthem."
Miyanpur is a small village in the Mohammadi tehsil of the Lakhimpur Kheri district, originally settled by Bengali-speaking Hindus from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), to whom the government allocated land with restricted rights. Others settled in Sujanpur (Dhaurahra), Mohanpur Grant (Mohammadi), and Grant 3 (Gola tehsil).
Residents such as Mahant Mandal, Sumendra, Chitranjan Viswas, Kiran Devi, and Binti welcomed the renaming of their village.
Mandal said the change gives them a "proper identity" for their village and its people. Viswas noted that the villagers had long been advocating for the name change, which they communicated through their MLA Lokendra Pratap Singh to the chief minister, who granted their request.
Former village head Birendra Nath Bala praised the decision to rename the village from Miyanpur to Ravindra Nagar, stating, "Our long-cherished wish has now been fulfilled."
Deepak Vishwas added, "It seemed rather odd to have Miyanpur as our village name when no Muslim families live here. We have long demanded that the village name be changed to Ravindra Nagar."
BJP MLA from the Mohammadi assembly constituency Lokendra Pratap Singh expressed gratitude to Adityanath for agreeing to the name change.
"Most of the villagers were unaware of how the name Miyanpur was assigned to their village, since all families here are from the Hindu community. They presented their request for the name change to Ravindra Nagar through me. I brought their demand to the chief minister, and I, along with all the villagers, feel grateful that he accepted our request and announced the change to Ravindra Nagar."