PATNA, June 26 -- Bakhtiarpur, a municipality notified area and a town in Patna district, is again in news after the move to change its name has surfaced. Though it has been an old demand and often turned down, this time it is significant as the empowered standing committee of the Bakhtiarpur Municipal Council on Tuesday passed a resolution to change its name to 'Magadh Dwar' just ahead of the state election and it would be forwarded to the government for approval. The committee chairman Pawan Kumar told media persons that the proposal had been passed to remove the name of the tyrant . "We will send it to the CM and the Governor," he added. A senior official of the Patna district administration said that it would have to be seen if the empowered standing committee is the competent authority for passing such a proposal or it would have to be approved by the council. "It is a sensitive issue and without getting all the details, I will not comment," he added. Bakhtiarpur is an important town, as it is the native place of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Born and brought up there, Nitish Kumar often rejected the demand for changing Bakhtiarpur's name in the past, terming them "uncalled for". The demand for changing Bakhtiarpur got prominence after the Bihar government started working on the resurrection of the ancient seat of learning at Nalanda with the establishment of trans-national Nalanda University. In 1193, Muhammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khalji, the military general of slave dynasty founder Qutubuddin Aibak, burned down the Nalanda University library, which flourished from the fourth century AD to about the 12th century, and it is said that it kept burning for around three months due to sheer volume of books there. The university attracted scholars from China, Tibet, Greece and other parts before it was destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji's army in 1193. Now, while the modern avatar of the Nalanda University has been set up to revive the ancient glory, the name of Bakhtiarpur Khilji associated with Bakhtiarpur, barely 27 kms from Nalanda, remains a sore point for some, especially in the BJP. Several BJP leaders, including Gopal Narayan Singh in the Rajya Sabha, raised the demand for changing rhe name, but so far it could not happen. Union minister Giriraj Singh had also raised the demand, as did several legislators. During the debate before the passage of the Nalanda University Bill, 2010, one of the members had said in the Rajya Sabha, "It was ironic that while Bakhtiyar Khilji had destroyed Nalanda University, the current Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was born in Bakhtiarpur and is the one who is moving the legislation for its resurrection. History has its own ways". Despite reluctance on part of the Bihar government, the demand for changing the name of Bakhtiarpur has kept cropping up from the BJP. Once JD-U spokesman Neeraj Kumar had rebuked the demand and said that Bakhtiarpur was not named after the tyrant Khilji, but after a Sufi saint Bakhtiyar Kaki. "There is no evidence in any historical document that Bakhtiyar Khilji ever visited Bakhtiyarpur, a name that found first mention in the 1901 Census. Khulna passed away in 1206," he clarified. BJP MLA Haribhushan Thakur Bachaul said that the name of Bakhtiarpur should be changed to 'Nitish Nagar', as it was the native place of Bihar CM. Few years ago, there was a demand to change the name of Bakhtiarpur railway station to 'Sheelbhadrayajinagar' and a proposal was also sent to the Union home ministry....