The change will reflect the town's well-known Lord Ganesh Temple and fulfil the long-pending aspiration of the locally powerful Wayanadan Chetti community, which is believed to have migrated to the region from Dharapuram in present-day Tamil Nadu in the 15th century.

The name Sulthan Bathery came about because this town once housed a battery or a store of weapons that belonged to Tipu Sultan, the Mysore ruler who conquered the area in the second half of the 18th century, according to Surendran.

According to the BJP candidate, the town was known as Ganapathivattom before it was renamed Sulthan Bathery.

The town is mentioned as Hennared Veedhi in the ancient histories of South India's prominent kingdoms like Cheras, Gangas, Hoysalas, and Kadambas. It was developed by the Kottayam and Kurubranad dynasties, which ruled the region from the 16th century AD to the end of the 19th century AD of present-day Kerala.

Contrary to Surendran’s claims, it was the British who began referring to the region as Sulthan's Battery after Tipu Sultan was captured and executed. “The name Ganapathivattom was prevalent when Tipu established his dominion over the region, but there is no proof he changed its name,” O. K. Johnny, a historian from Wayanad said.

Ganapathivattom was imposed by the Kurumbranad and Kottayam dynasties who replaced its ancient name, Hennared Veedhi.

It was the Jains, who migrated to the area from Karnataka, who christened this place Hennarad Veedhi, which in Kannada means 12 streets, and was meant to denote the 12 streets where the migrants first settled.

According to Johnny, two of these 12 streets are still around today.

Local historian T. Mohanbabu also clarified that Tipu did not demolish any local Jain temple to use them as storehouses of weapons. This is a complete and utter fabrication, he said.

The Archaeological Survey of India recently renovated the old Jain temple, with minor repairs.

The leaders of the Congress, CPI (M), CPI, and IUML in Kerala have already come together to protest what they call the "vexed agenda" of the Sangh Parivar to create communal tension in the Sulthan Bathery.

K. Sahadevan, a former municipal chairman of Sulathan Bathery, who played a significant role in the municipality's achievement of numerous national recognitions for being the cleanest town in India in the last decade, asserts that this controversy is nothing more than an organised attempt to create black marks on its long history of inclusive and composite cultures.

Each roadway in the municipality is lined with potted plants, and there is not a single piece of waste that can be seen lying around.

“The people living in this area are well-known for their hard work, and they have no specific interest in changing the name. The perfect cleanliness of Sulthan Bathery can be credited to the responsible and responsive public of the locality,” stated famed Malayalam writer Arshad Bathery.

According to Mohanbabu, the Ganesha temple here was a significant marker for people travelling from Mysore to Kozhikode, including soldiers, planters, and merchants until the 1920s. After undergoing significant renovations, the temple was rechristened the Maha Ganapathy Temple in 1952.

During a news conference that took place on April 11 in Thamarassery in Kozhikode, Surendran reaffirmed his position. Congress party leader T Siddique said Surendran was attempting to divert people's attention from all of the other important concerns. “While Congress is in the midst of a campaign against the failure of the NDA regime and the series of corruptions committed by the BJP, Surendran has no choice but to bring up such insignificant issues,” he said.

Tipu Sultan has been brought up by the BJP in the past in Karnataka as a polarising figure.

“People are relying on hearsay rather than on historical facts that have been established through proper investigation,” said Dr. K. K. N. Kurup, a historian and a former vice chancellor of Calicut University, who added that there was no historical evidence to back up the Sangh Parivar's claims regarding Tipu's destruction of the Jain temple and the spread of terror in Wayanad.