Bhagyanagar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said at the party’s national executive that “Hyderabad is Bhagyanagar, which is a significance for all of us”.

In December 2020, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while on a visit to Hyderabad ahead of municipal elections in the city, had visited the Bhagyalakshmi temple which, according to some BJP leaders, derives its name from Bhagyanagar, as Hyderabad was originally known.

What is the Bhagyalakshmi temple?

• It is a small temple dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi, adjacent to the southeast minar of Charminar. Made of bamboo poles and tarpaulins, it has a tin roof, and the southeast minar forms its back wall.
• There is no definitive version on how and when exactly it came up, but it has been there since at least the 1960s.
• Sources in the Archaeological Survey of India said the temple encroaches on the protective perimeter of Charminar.
• Officials say a small guard pillar erected to protect the monument from vehicles was found painted in saffron sometime in the 1960s and some people started performing aarti there.
• When a state road transport bus hit the guard pillar damaging it, a small structure made of bamboo was built overnight and the idol of the goddess was placed.

Why is it called Bhagyalakshmi temple?

Devotees associate the name with their belief that praying in the temple brings good luck and fortune. On the other hand, Hindu organisations associate the name with Bhagyanagar. Some leaders say Hyderabad was earlier known as Bhagyanagar but it was changed to Hyderabad by Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah.