Tejasvi MPs Surya and Anantkumar Hegde were among the leaders who opposed the proposal to name 11 roads after Muslim leaders.
After some BJP MPs voiced their opposition, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has written to the government recommending that the proposal to name 11 roads in the city’s Padarayanapura district honoring social workers and leaders belonging to the minority community.
The BBMP, at its meeting in September, had decided to name the roads in District 135 after social workers and other personalities, all belonging to the Muslim community.
In his December 31 letter, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad has cited objections from sectors of citizens, including BJP MPs Anantkumar Hegde, PC Mohan and Tejasvi Surya, among others.
He has also cited certain sections of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act 1976 in his letter to the Department of Urban Development from the Additional Chief Secretary, while recommending that the government withdraw the proposal.
“After public uproar over the proposal to name certain roads in a few Muslim-dominated Bangalore after only Muslim names, BBMP dropped the idea. A vigilante Hindu society may thwart these malicious attempts,” Surya had tweeted the same day as the BBMP commissioner wrote to the government.
The issue came to light when the BBMP raised objections to the proposed name change.
Hegde and Surya had then written to the BBMP Commissioner objecting to the proposal.
In his letter, Surya had said: “The christening of roads in a Muslim-dominated town with only Muslim names reeks of the same communal mentality of the two-nation theory, and the Muslim Leagues require separate constituencies for Hindus and Muslims. This is dangerous and must be condemned. “
The letter was written in the context of a December 16 notice that was approved by BBMP’s Department of Revenue. Padarayanapura, within the Chamrajpet Assembly constituency, has been in the news since it became the city’s first district to be sealed under COVID-19 containment measures taken by the BBMP in April.
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