West Bengal to Be Renamed as ‘Bangla’: Assembly Passes Resolution

Earlier, the Centre had rejected Bengal govt’s proposal of having three names in three languages for West Bengal.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. 

(Photo: Reuters)

The West Bengal Assembly on Thursday, 26 July, passed a resolution to rename the state as 'Bangla' in three languages — Bengali, English and Hindi.

The move is also aimed at climbing the alphabetical sequence of state names in which West Bengal appears last now.

West Bengal has passed similar resolutions multiple times in the last few years after Mamata Banerjee had repeatedly complained that she had to wait for hours for her turn to speak at the inter-council meetings in Delhi.

The state will have to wait for the nod from the Home Ministry for a final approval on the resolution.

Earlier, the Centre had rejected the state government's proposals of having three names Bangla (in Bengali), Bengal (in English) and Bangal (in Hindi).

The Mamata Banerjee government's proposal of renaming West Bengal as "Paschim Bango" in 2011 was also turned down by the Centre.