3 Months After HC Dismissed 'Tejo Mahalaya' Plea, BJP Councillor To Raise Demand In Agra Civic Body

The proposal will be read in the House and after that decision will be taken for further proceedings after considering all the aspects, as per the sources.

New Delhi: Months after an Allahabad High Court Bench dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking direction to “find the truth” behind the 22 locked rooms in the Taj Mahal to resolve the "controversy” around the monument’s origins, now a BJP Councillor has prepared to put a demand to rename the Mughal-era monument as 'Tejo Mahalaya'.

BJP Councillor Shobharam Rathore is preparing a proposal to put before Agra Municipal Corporation to rename Taj Mahal as ‘Tejo Mahalaya’. BJP councillor has decided to make it a proposal and present it in the next meeting of the civic body, slated to be held on Wednesday, sources told ABP News.

The proposal will be read in the municipal house and after that decision will be taken for further proceedings after considering all the aspects, as per sources.

BJP Councillor Shobharam Rathore said that he has "proof" that a lotus urn exists in the Taj Mahal. So far, municipal officials have not commented on the issue.

This is not the first time that right-wing members have demanded a change of name for the Mughal-era mausoleum. There have been multiple claims by right-wing outfits that the Taj Mahal was a Lord Shiva temple. 

In May, the Lucknow Bench of Justices DK Upadhyay and Subhash Vidyarthi dismissed the petition, filed by BJP youth media in-charge Ayodhya Rajneesh Singh, stating the request as "non-justiciable" and that the matter should be left to the historian.

While dismissing the plea the Court said: "It is not for the Court to direct what subject needs to be researched or studied. We are not able to entertain such a petition."

"You hold that the structure (Taj Mahal) was not made by Shah Jahan? Are we here to pronounce any verdict? Please don't take us to the historical facts which you believe", the bench had said on petition claims that the Taj Mahal was actually a Shiva Temple or Tejo Mahalaya.

Earlier, Surendra Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Uttar Pradesh's Ballia had claimed that Agra's historical monument Taj Mahal will be renamed ‘Ram Mahal’ under the Yogi administration.

He had also claimed that the Taj Mahal used to be a Shiva temple but the Muslim rulers destroyed it.