The Hindu Mahasabha on Tuesday said that it would rename Meerut to Nathuram Godse Nagar if its candidate is elected mayor in municipal polls expected to be held in December across Uttar Pradesh, PTI reported.

Godse had assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in January 1948 and was executed for it in November the next year.

The organisation’s national Vice President Ashok Sharma added that names of various places with Muslim links in the district would also be named after “great Hindu men”.

Hindu Mahasabha Meerut unit Chief Abhishek Agarwal said that the organisation would find “patriotic candidates” to contest all the seats in the city.

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“Our first promise is to make India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and the second task is to ensure that every Hindu takes care of gau mata [cow],” Agarwal said, according to PTI. “The organisation will also work on stopping religious conversions and growing Islamic appeasement politics.”

Agarwal also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena are moving away from their ideology.

“The BJP used to call itself a Hindu party, but today it is also increasingly dominated by people from other communities,” he claimed. “In the same way, the Shiv Sena is also moving towards Islamic appeasement politics.”