NEW DELHI: West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya on Wednesday said that the state is set to be renamed “Paschim Banga”, addint that a legislative bill would be introduced in the first session of assemby.“How many times must I say, brother? The name will be ‘Paschim Banga’,” news agency ANI quoted him saying after he was asked about the name change again.He had also indicated earlier this week that the formal renaming was imminent, saying names such as “Paschim Bangla”, “Bangla” and “Banga” would no longer be used.“Yes, absolutely. Paschim Banga Bhavan… West Bengal’s ‘Paschim’… For a long time now, you will no longer have to hear names like ‘Paschim Bangla’, ‘Bangla’, or ‘Banga’. ‘Paschim Banga’ (West Bengal) is coming,” Bhattacharya had said on Monday.Explaining the proposed legislative move, the BJP state chief said the bill would seek to link the state’s official name with its historical identity.“Very soon, in the very first session itself, our government is introducing a bill so that the name of this state remains intrinsically linked with the history of this state, and that remains its identity. That is why the state is going to be named ‘Paschim Banga’,” he said.The proposal to rename West Bengal has a long political history. The move dates back to 1999, when the Left Front government proposed ‘Paschim Banga’ as the state’s new name.
Share your thoughts in the comments
Be respectful · TOI community guidelines
The proposal was later changed to ‘Bangla’ after then Congress MLA Saugata Roy suggested it, but the Centre rejected it.After the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011, the state again proposed ‘Paschim Banga’, which was turned down by the UPA-2 government.In 2016, the state suggested three names, ‘Bangla’ in Bengali, ‘Bengal’ in English and ‘Bangal’ in Hindi, before eventually proposing ‘Bangla’ in all three languages.In July 2018, the West Bengal assembly passed a resolution to rename the state ‘Bangla’ and sent it to the Centre for approval. However, the proposal was not cleared.The Centre cited the need for a constitutional amendment, while sources had earlier said the similarity between ‘Bangla’ and Bangladesh could cause confusion at international forums.In 2019, then Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told the Rajya Sabha that the Centre had not approved the name change.
