Assembly wants WB renamed ''Bangla'', ''Bengal''; Centre to decide

Kolkata, August 29

The West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution on Monday for renaming the state to ‘Bangla’ in Bengali and ‘Bengal’ in English amid opposition from Congress, BJP and the Left Front.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said: "The name Bangla has a historical and cultural background. I don't have a problem with the name of 'Bango' either. But most of the people want the name 'Bangla'. In English, it will be 'Bengal', so that there is no confusion with the name of neighbouring Bangladesh".

"Whenever we go out of India or to some other state we are known as people from Bengal. We had proposed changing the state’s name in 2011, but the central government had held its decision back. There has been no word since.  So we decided to bring it once again to change the name of the state to 'Bangla'.”

She also criticised the opposition saying: “Those who are opposing the name change just for the sake of politics should be ashamed. It is a historic blunder and the history will not forgive them".

‘Referendum’

The Opposition called the decision arbitrary. Leader of Opposition, Congress leader Abdul Mannan, demanded either a referendum or a commission set up before the name is changed, but Banerjee dismissed it saying the public had already voted three months ago during Assembly poll and “the results were before them”.

The Left demanded an all-party meeting on renaming the state.

"We don't oppose the new name 'Bangla' but we wonder how can there be three names for the state — one in Bengali, one in English and another in Hindi. I think there has to be an all-party meet to discuss on the matter," Left Front’s legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty said. "Uttar Pradesh is not called Northern Province in English".

The BJP meanwhile called renaming the state an attempt to “wipe out the painful history” of Bengal’s partition.

Congress lawmakers walked out of the session protesting the chief minister's 'attitude".

The resolution will now be sent to the central government to introduce it in Parliament. —  PTI