Patna, Aug 21 (IANS): After facing much criticism, the Bihar government on Monday evening rolled back the decision to change the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee park in Kankarbagh locality of Patna.

The park was renamed by Bihar's environment, forest and climate change minister Tej Pratap Yadav by renaming the Atal Bihari Vajpayee park as Coconut Park on Monday.

The ministry of environment on Sunday announced that Tej Pratap Yadav will rename the Atal Bihari Vajpayee park as Coconut Park on Monday.

This led to a huge uproar in political circles with BJP leaders like Union MoS home Nityanand Rai, BJP state president Samrat Chaudhary and others heavily criticising Nitish Kumar, saying that he is exposed now. This is the real face of Nitish Kumar who always says 'Respected Atal Ji' and admires him personally on the one hand and tries to break his image on the other hand.

Nitish Kumar went to Delhi to offer prayers at the samadhi of Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his fifth death anniversary, a few days ago.

Following the criticism, he reportedly discussed the matter with deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav during the review meeting of the health department and directed the environment ministry to roll back the decision.

After Nitish Kumar's initiative, the environment ministry issued a clarification stating that the original name of the park was Coconut Park but in 2018, a private institution named The Situation and Development Foundation had renamed it as Atal Bihari Vajpayee Park and had also erected his statue.