Allahabad has been formally renamed Prayagraj after the UP cabinet put its seal on the decision on Tuesday.

Government spokesperson and MP from Allahabad West, Sidharth Nath Singh announced that ‘Prayagraj’ would be used to promote Indian culture on an international scale and also for promotion of Kumbh, scheduled to start in January 2019.

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“I had personally taken up the matter with the governor a few months back and other people, too, had expressed their desire to have the name of Allahabad reverted to its original name of Prayagraj. The cabinet gave unanimous approval to the proposal and the city will now be known as Prayagraj,” Singh said .

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, after participating in the Margdarshak Mandal meeting for the Kumbh , said that he had received this proposal from the seers and the government would take action on it shortly. “Prayag is a confluence of two rivers. Here we have a confluence of three rivers, Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati . Therefore it’s name will be Prayagraj,” he said.

The city was named Allahabad by Emperor Akbar reportedly in the 16th century .

In May this year, when Yogi was in Allahabad to announce the dates of the shahi snan, a delegation of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad met him with the demand that Allahabad be renamed to Prayag. Mahant Narendra Giri, president of Akhara Parishad, had led the delegation and later said that the CM would soon pass a resolution in the cabinet to the effect.