Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh), April 9 : Union Minister Giriraj Singh has stirred a new controversy by demanding that Muzaffarnagar be renamed. He said that Muzaffarnagar has been the capital of farmers and the name was hurting its pride. There is a need for a new name for the district to erase the signs of Mughals after over seven decades of the country's Independence. Reacting to the minister's demand, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) district president Yogesh Sharma said the statement was nothing but a political stunt. "The Lok Sabha polls are around, and they raise such issues to polarise people," he said. Muzaffarnagar has been the centre stage of farmers' politics. The district was rocked by riots in 2013 that claimed many lives and rendered over 50,000 people homeless. The riots affected social and political equations in the area, which are said to have helped the BJP in getting a landslide victory in 2014 polls. /IANS