File picture of HAM (S) National President Santosh Suman with former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
| Photo Credit: PTI
Bihar Minister and National President of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) Santosh Kumar Suman on Wednesday (September 9, 2026) demanded that the name of Bakhtiyarpur be changed to Nitishpur in honour of former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
He has urged Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary to rename the town, which is also the birthplace of Mr. Kumar.
Writing a post on his social media account X, Mr. Suman said, “Let the birthplace of Bihar’s great mass leader bear his name—Bakhtiyarpur becomes ‘Nitishpur’.”
Son of Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi further said, “Bakhtiyarpur is not merely a geographical identity. It is the birthplace of that great mass leader who, through his long public life, gave a new direction to Bihar’s politics, development, and governance. The life journey, struggles, and countless memories of Nitish Kumar ji are tied to this land.”
Mr. Suman asserted that honouring the birthplace of such a mass leader — who gave Bihar a new path of development, good governance, and social transformation — with his name will not just be a change of a place’s name, but a tribute to the pride of that soil, its history, and the public sentiments connected to it.
“With this very sentiment, I place before the Chief Minister, Samrat Choudhary, the proposal to rename Bakhtiyarpur as ‘Nitishpur’. The land that gave Bihar a mass leader like Nitish Kumar — its identity, too, should be in the name of that pride — ‘Bakhtiyarpur’ becomes ‘Nitishpur’.”
The opposition Rashtriya Janata (RJD) has criticised his demand, alleging that he is following the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ideology, which believes in name-changing politics.
Ejaz Ahmed, spokesperson of RJD, said, “BJP believes in politics of name-changing, and Mr. Suman is just following in the footsteps of the saffron party. BJP wants to establish itself by changing the name and identity of the place. He is just doing damage control after his recent statement (seeking a review of the reservation policy and sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes).”
He added, “He demands proof that the HAM (S) party does not have its own ideology. People of Bihar will laugh at his party now. Janata Dal (United) itself is not accepting the name of Nitish Kumar; how can you expect the people of Bakhtiyarpur to accept his name.”
It is not the first time that a demand has been made to change the name of Bakhtiyarpur, which falls under Patna district. Time and again, the BJP leaders of Bihar have made similar demands. In 2018, Union Minister and firebrand leader of the BJP, Giriraj Singh, had demanded that Bakhtiyarpur and other towns named after Muslim invaders should be renamed.
The demand gained momentum soon after the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh had renamed the Mughalsarai Railway Junction as Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Junction, and changed the name of Allahabad city to Prayagraj.
In 2021, the then BJP MLA in Bihar, Hari Bhushan Thakur, had raised a similar demand to rename Bakhtiyarpur as Nitish Nagar, asserting that Turkish invader Bakhtiya Khilji had destroyed the ancient Nalanda University and he was still being glorified.
When the demand was raised by Mr. Thakur to rename his birthplace at that time, Mr. Kumar had rejected it, calling it faltu baat (worthless talk).
Published – September 10, 2026 11:25 am IST
