Resolution to change name of West Bengal passed, BJP opposes

Recommendation was to renamed it as 'Bangla' in Bengali and Bengal' in English

The West Bengal Assembly on Monday passed a resolution for renaming the state as 'Bangla' in Bengali and 'Bengal' in English, weeks after a proposal in this regard was put forward by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Speaking to the reporters after passing of the resolution, Mamata said, "Everyone would be happy with the change of name of Bengal. The people of Bengal have accepted the name 'Bangla'. We have given importance to that. Congress, CPM, BJP have opposed to the renaming of the state. If the opposition is doing this for the sake of it, then it is very much unfortunate."

Mamata said the TMC Government would send the resolution to the Centre as it needs to be passed in the Parliament.

"Bombay has become Mumbai, Chennai has been renamed as Tamil Nadu and there are many other instances. The base is Bengal and we want to take everyone along with us. We are proud as Bengalis. Our intention is to make Bengal world famous. I hope this decision will be good for Bengal. There should be a brand of Bengal. We are proud that with your help, we could adopt this name," she added.

Taking a strong exception to the opposition parties who did not support the resolution, Mamata said, "Those who did not support us in this, the future won't forgive them. It will remain as a blot. The Congress has turned into a frontal organisation of the CPM by opposing everything. They play 'narad narad' by seeing any issue."

Further escalating her attack on the Centre, the West Bengal Chief said the ruling dispensation there has sold themselves to the BJP workers in the House.

"If the people of a party control the government like this, then you can understand that their intention is to oppose at every single step. Why should any middleman take its responsibility and say they won't allow it? This is wrong and if need be, I will talk about this with the Home Minister," she added.

Mamata said she respects all political parties but they must have a responsibility.

"Just because they could not pass the resolution, they are criticising it. I don't think they have the right to do politics in Bengal who do not support anything for the benefit of Bengal. This is very unfortunate. We are also against the policies of the Centre but we cannot allow losses of crores in the name of Bandhs," she added.

The proposal to pass the resolution was approved by the special session of the West Bengal Assembly, which was convened on August 26 to discuss the renaming of the state.

In 2011, the state government had sent a proposal to the Centre for renaming West Bengal as "Paschim Bango", but that never got the green signal.

Another reason for changing the name of the state is that whenever there is any meeting of all states, West Bengal comes at the bottom of the list alphabetically.

After the partition of India in 1947, Bengal was bifurcated as East Bengal and West Bengal. East Bengal became a part of Pakistan.

It was rechristened East Pakistan in 1956 and later emerged as the independent nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.