By IANS,
Bhopal : What’s in a name? Apparently a lot, if you happen to ask residents of this city, many of whom will hold a rally here Saturday (March 12) to protest against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s proposal to change the name of the state capital to ‘Bhojpal’.
On Feb 28, while celebrating 1,000 years of the coronation of medieval king Raja Bhoj, Shivraj Singh Chouhan hoped that this city would be renamed Bhojpal and said he would recommend it to the central government.
The state government also renamed Upper Lake as Bhojtaal and VIP Road as Raja Bhoj Road.
However, the announcement sparked off angry protests on social networking sites like Facebook.
Members of the ‘Say no to Bhojpal’ page on Facebook seemed determined to make the rally a success, and over 8,000 guests have already confirmed their participation till Monday.
The protesters also held a meeting here Sunday to plan the rally. They said the change in name would not benefit them in any way.
Jeet Singh posted on Facebook that the change in name reeked of a political stunt and was not practical.
“We were born as Bhopalis and will die as Bhopalis,” Siddharth Sengupta, a student, said.