Sambit Patra posted this photo on Twitter. ( Source: Twitter)

BJP leader Sambit Patra on Monday tweeted a picture showing the name of Dehradun written in Sanskrit — “Dehradunam” — along with Hindi and English, and replacing Urdu, purportedly on a railway station signboard in the city, although Railways said this was not the case on ground.

Sources said that following a request from an Uttarakhand BJP MLA in January 2019 to the Railways Ministry to write names of stations in the state in Sanskrit along with English and Hindi — Sanskrit is the official second language of the state now — Northern Railways had tried to get the Sanskrit name “Dehradunam” inscribed on its station board. It sent a letter to the District Magistrate of Dehradun on September 17 last year to officially obtain the Sanskrit names of stations in Dehradun district but there was no reply.

Sources said the signboard in picture was part of this exercise last year when Urdu was replaced by Sanskrit, but after some local organisations objected the plan did not go ahead.

The Northern Railways spokesperson was not available for comments.

On Monday, BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe retweeted an image of two pictures posted by a handle on Twitter. While one picture purportedly showed an old Dehradun station signboard written in Hindi, English and Urdu, another, of supposedly a new signboard, showed Urdu replaced by Sanskrit. Patra tweeted it with a comment: “SANSKRIT”. By late night, it got more than 95,000 ‘likes’ and over 18,000 retweets and comments.