Gurgaon is Gurugram now, but constituency name stays same

GURUGRAM: The BJP government in the state had formally renamed Gurgaon district to Gurugram in November 2016, but this change has not reflected in the records of Election Commission of India (ECI). The Gurgaon

Lok Sabha

constituency has not been renamed Gurugram and for the next seven years, the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha seats will continue to be called Gurgaon.

The Gurgaon Lok Sabha

constituency

comprises Gurgaon, Mewat and Rewari districts. As the name of Gurgaon district has been changed, the Lok Sabha constituency is being widely addressed as the Gurugram seat. However, the reality is that the name of the parliamentary seat has not been changed.

A district official who has been deputed for the electoral duty told TOI that the office of the chief electoral commissioner had been apprised of the discrepancy in the constituency’s name in the beginning of 2017, and the authorities had requested for a name change. The request was to be forwarded to the ECI. However, there has been no response from the poll panel so far, and the seat’s name has remained unchanged, the official said.

There are rules for changing names of districts, cities and villages through the Union home ministry. However, there is no clear rule when it comes to changing the name of a constituency.

A constituency’s name is changed only when there is a

delimitation

exercise. Moreover, since a parliamentary constituency is usually carved out of more than one district, its name cannot automatically change after one of the districts has been renamed, according to sources.

According to sources, the next delimitation exercise is scheduled for 2026, which means that the name of both the Gurgaon parliamentary and Assembly constituencies cannot be changed for another seven years.

In April 2016, the Manohar Lal Khattar-led state government renamed Gurgaon as Gurugram. The notification in this regard was passed in November 2016.

After the renaming, the chief minister had said his party had fulfilled its poll promise, and even claimed that the new name would help preserve the “rich heritage” of the district by emphasising its mythological association with

Dronacharya

.

In the Mahabharata, the district has been described as the village (‘gram’) of Dronacharya, the guru of the Kauravas and Pandavas. The claim is that with the passage of time, the Gurugram district came to be known as Gurgaon. Today, that ‘gram’ is a

corporate

hub and home to approximately 250 Fortune 500 companies.