Jaipur: A legislator from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Rajasthan has urged the state government to change the name of Islampur village in Jhunjhunu district to Shri Rampur, triggering protests from villagers.The protesting locals have submitted a memorandum to the Jhunjhunu district collector, opposing any move to change Islampur’s name.Earlier, the issue came to light when the chief minister’s office sent a letter to the district collector of Jhunjhunu on May 29, seeking comments about a letter dated February 17 from Jhunjhunu BJP MLA Rajendra Bhamboo, wherein he had recommended that the name of Islampur be changed to Shri Rampur.“It is the public’s sentiment along with that of the public representatives of the BJP that the name of the village be changed from Islampur to Shri Rampur and I have recommended for the same,” BJP MLA Bhamboo told The Wire.“For a long time, it was the demand of many people from the Jhunjhunu assembly and public representatives, that the name (Islampur) is from pre-independence days and in today’s context, it would be appropriate to change Islampur to Shri Rampur, and I have also recommended it. It is my request to the government and the chief minister that soon the name of Islampur be changed to Shri Rampur,” Bhamboo had earlier told reporters in Jhunjhunu.Bhamboo added that social justice and empowerment minister Avinash Gehlot, who is the district in-charge minister for Jhunjhunu had earlier called for the renaming of Islampur.Villagers of Islampur on Friday (June 5) staged a protest outside the Jhunjhunu district collectorate against the proposed name change and raised slogans against BJP MLA Bhamboo.“The village was established by nawab Islam Khan in 1451. There is no conflict among the people of the village about the name. We will not allow this issue to be communalised. It is our appeal to the government that the name be not changed,” said Amin Maniyar, former sarpanch of Islampur.He added that a change in name without the consent of villagers and the village panchayat would be unconstitutional.“A name change will also require a correction in official documents of every person living in Islampur and also in government documents, leading to extra expenses and inconvenience to the public. If the government doesn’t listen to us and goes ahead with the proposal to change the name, we will protest,” said Maniyar.In a memorandum to the Jhunjhunu district collector, Maniyar has said that Islampur is the biggest village in Jhunjhunu with a population of around 15,000 people and the village has always been called Islampur, be it during the British rule, after independence or in revenue records.The Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP government in Rajasthan had previously sought to replace Urdu words used in policing terminology with Hindi and tasked the police department to collect information about such Urdu words and their possible replacement in Hindi.It had also renamed Hotel Khadim in Ajmer – operated by the state tourism department – as Hotel “Ajay Meru” following the instructions from assembly speaker Vasudev Devnani, who is a BJP MLA from the district.“The BJP is on a renaming spree across the country but it doesn’t amount to anything. Instead of carrying out developmental work, what’s the use of changing the names of places, which already have a distinct history? Any move to rename a place should be a decision taken by the people who live there after broad consensus,” said Rajasthan Congress general secretary and spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi.