The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) said that there was no proposal to rename Ramlila Maidan after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, even as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the matter.
Citing a news report on the proposed renaming, Kejriwal tweeted, "Changing name of Ramlila Maidan etc after Vajpayeeji will not fetch votes. BJP should change the name of the Prime Minister to get some votes because people are not voting on his name."
Dismissing the news report, North Delhi Mayor Adesh Gupta said that there was no such proposal.
"There is no proposal to rename Ramlila Maidan after Vajpayeeji. All reports suggesting so are wrong," he said.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari also claimed that there was no proposal to change the name of Ramlila Ground. "Some politically motivated people are creating the rumour that name of Ramlila Maidan will be changed. We are worshippers of Lord Ram, there is no question of changing name of Ramlila Maidan," Tiwari said.
The mayor denied that some NDMC councillors approached the civic body or his office with a suggestion to rename the ground after Vajpayee. "No councillor has even made any such suggestion," Gupta said.
The historic Ramlila Maidan located close to the New Delhi railway station serves as a venue of political rallies and other events, besides hosting Ramleela every year.
