Congress said the new district should have been named after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi while the Samajwadi Party termed the development “unfortunate”. On the other hand, the BJP said the BSP government cannot think beyond a set of names.

The Congress is not opposed to the decision to give district status to Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha constituency but is against the government’s choice of name for it.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief spokesperson, Subodh Srivastava said, “All we have to say is that it would have been better if the district was named after Rajiv Gandhi because of his long association with the area. The formation of a new district is a state subject and we don’t have to say much.”

A local Congress leader said people are generally happy with the government decision. “It will also be easier for us to handle Amethi constituency because all five assembly segments will now be part of the new district,” he said.

Sultanpur district Congress chief Maksood Ahmad said that even in 2003, when the initial notification about formation of the new district was issued, they had opposed the name given to it and not the formation of the new district.

On the other hand, the SP said the government decision reveals that the ruling BSP is only projecting people of a particular section as icons.

“This government has no work other than to install stones, create new districts, rename places and project people of a particular section as the only icons... The Mayawati government is blatantly misusing and wasting public fund and not a single penny is being spent on development works,” said SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav.