BJP Alleges Park Named After Atal Bihari Vajpayee Renamed; Bihar Denies

Patna:

A controversy erupted in Bihar on Monday when the opposition BJP alleged that the state government was renaming a park in the capital city, named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a charge promptly denied by the department concerned.

The state department for environment and forestry asserted in a statement that “reports in a section of the media about Atal Bihari Vajpayee Park being renamed as Coconut Park were not true”.

It was also clarified that there was a park named after the late leader elsewhere in the city and the one in question bore the name ‘Coconut Park’ ever since it was handed over to the department of environment and forestry “by the Road Construction department, along with all other parks in Patna, in November, 2022”.

The department also hinted that the confusion may have arisen because of a signboard put up on the gate of the park “without the government’s approval” by a “private organization” named after Vajpayee based in the Kankarbagh locality of the city.

BJP leaders like Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai have come out with strong reactions following reports that Tej Pratap Yadav, the minister for environment and forestry, would be “renaming” the park at a function which was scheduled on Monday.

The department, however, clarified that the function was marked to throw open the “renovated” park and it has been “put off because of unavoidable reasons” and “the minister has sought full details, from Patna Nagar Nigam, about the name of the park”.

Mr Yadav, the elder brother of Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, meanwhile, replied to queries from journalists with the curt remark “there was no question of renaming. It was already known as Coconut Park. The BJP is spreading rumours”.

The BJP, which was stripped of power in the state last year when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar snapped ties, was quick to call into question the JD(U) leader’s claims of immense respect for the former Prime Minister in whose cabinet he had served and whose memorial he visited during a recent trip to Delhi.

The Environment department, however, sought to highlight the fact that the city’s posh Pataliputra Colony had a park named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee in which ‘a life-sized statue’ of the late leader was installed, in contrast with the ‘small, low quality’ one put up by the private organization concerned inside the ‘Coconut Park’.

The department also underscored that the park named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee was being “duly maintained” and it has been the site of “annual government functions” organized on the occasion of the late leader’s birth and death anniversaries.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)