Shah to rename Mughalsarai stn as DDU jn today

Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah will formally rename Mughalsarai junction as Deen Dayal Upadhyay junction on Sunday. 

Deen Dayal Upadhyay was the party ideologue and former chief of BJP’s earlier incarnation Bharatiya Jan Sangh. 

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal will also accompany the BJP chief at the iconic railway station on Sunday. 

The three leaders will flag off a passenger train and a goods train with an all-woman crew and also launch a ‘smart yard’ project at the century-old junction on the busy Delhi-Howrah route. 

The main building of the 19th century station has already been painted saffron as per the desire of BJP leaders by the Railways authorities. 

Deen Dayal Upadhyay was found dead under mysterious circumstances near Mughalsarai station in February 1968. 

Mughalsarai is also the birth place of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

The BJP leaders will launch a project to upgrade the yard at the station. Ekatmata Express, now set to follow a new route from Lucknow to Mughalsarai, will get the green signal. 

Railway officials said that it would be the first time in the country that an all-woman crew would run a goods train. 

Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha, UP’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and other senior BJP leaders will also be present on the occasion.

On paper, Mughalsarai station got its new name after Governor Ram Naik gave his assent to the proposal in June.

The Centre had given its in-principle approval last year to the state government proposal to rename the Mughalsarai railway station. The Indian Railways renamed the country’s fourth busiest station after BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay on June 5. 

The move drew flak from the opposition, which accused the ruling party of attempting to tamper with history.

On Sunday, a big rally has been organised by the BJP at Railway Sports Ground in Mughalsari to launch the new sign board of DDU junction. BJP state chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, who represents Chandauli in the Lok Sabha, has been camping in the town for the past couple of days to oversee arrangements for the Sunday’s event. 

Pandey said that the BJP governments in the state and at the Centre had imbibed Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s philosophy of ‘antyodaya’ or caring for the last person in society.

Meanwhile, the state government sent a proposal to the Centre to name three civil airports after renowned personalities. The move came after the Centre gave its nod to renaming Mughalsarai junction..  

Official sources said that a proposal was sent on Friday to name the newly-constructed civil airports after renowned personalities. 

It has been suggested that the Kanpur airport be named after Ganesh Shanker Vidyarthi, the Agra airport after Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay and the Gorakhpur airport as Nath Nagri. 

The UP Cabinet approved these names several days ago.