Jammu and Kashmir Governor S.K. Sinha had launched a campaign in 1980 to call Patna Patliputra. The campaign got a fillip after Nitish came to power. Nitish had recently said, “For 15 years, Lalu could not rename the city. What stopped him then? There has been a long-standing demand to rename Patna as Pataliputra keeping in view its historical importance. Now that there is popular support for the name change, he is against it. What is the logic?” At the flagging-off ceremony on Wednesday, Lalu said, "It was former Bihar Assembly Speaker Ghulam Sarwar’s last wish that Patna be named Azimabad. I demand that the government name it as such.” While the argument continues, other political parties are cheering on. BJP general secretary Giriraj Singh said, “Lalu is worried that the Muslims are moving away from him. That is why he is resorting to such gimmicks. RJD national spokesperson Shyam Razzak, however, said. "It's the BJP that is frustrated because try as hard as it might, it can never woo the minorities," he said.
In the late 1990s, a former Speaker of the Bihar Assembly, the late Deonarain Yadav, had submitted a memorandum to Lalu, asking for Patna to be called Pataliputra. Lalu had first agreed, but later turned it down saying, “What's in a name?”
(Source-Hindustan Times,22/02/07)
