No more Bengal, Paschim Banga soon: State BJP chief says name change Bill coming

West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said that the state government would soon place a Bill in the Assembly to rename the state as Paschim Banga. Answering a question at a press conference on the proposal for a Paschim Banga Bhavan in Varanasi, he said the move to use the name Paschim Banga had been taken 'to connect it with its history' and added that the Bill could be introduced as early as the current session."The name will no longer be 'Banga' or 'Bengal'; it will be 'Paschim Banga. Very soon. Our government is introducing this bill in the very first session so that the state's name aligns with its history, and it becomes known by that name. That is why the state is going to be named 'Paschim Banga'," he said in Varanasi on Monday.Bhattacharya also said the state culture and tourism department, the Centre and descendants of the Cooch Behar royal family had planned the construction of Paschim Banga Bhavan in Varanasi. He said the proposed complex would serve both as a cultural centre for the state and as accommodation for tourists and pilgrims from Bengal.According to Bhattacharya, people would no longer have to use names such as Bangla or West Bengal, as the government was preparing to rename the state Paschim Banga in keeping with its past. Speaking about the Varanasi project, he said the city shared a long relationship with Bengal and described it as a spiritual bond. He said the first college for women there had been established by a Bengali, that the city had several schools for Bengali students, and that it continued to have a sizeable Bengali population.He also referred to the royal family of Cooch Behar, saying it had laid the foundation stone of the Benaras Kali Bari in 1836 and built twin temples there 10 years later. Bhattacharya said Gayatri Devi, the former politician and Maharani of Jaipur, who had been a princess of the Cooch Behar royal family, had been involved in an effort by the erstwhile Left Front government to restore the structure and had personally committed Rs 5 crore for the purpose. He said the plan did not move ahead because of red tape. He added that another attempt by the Trinamool Congress government in 2022 had also failed to take off.Bhattacharya said a fresh decision had now been taken to build a cultural centre with a conference hall, a library, a collection of Bengali literature and songs, and parking facilities. He said the complex would also provide a place to stay for pilgrims from Bengal and would serve as a venue for social gatherings for local Bengalis whose families had been living there for four to five generations.Efforts to change the state's name go back to 1999, when the Jyoti Basu-led Left Front government adopted a resolution seeking the name Paschim Banga. This came after a debate on whether the state should instead be called Bangla, a suggestion that was later also accepted and forwarded to the Centre.The main argument at the time was that the colonial-era name should be dropped in favour of one that reflected the state's Bengali identity, but the process did not secure political agreement or the Centre's approval.The matter returned after the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011. The Mamata Banerjee government first suggested Paschim Banga, arguing that because West Bengal appeared near the end of the alphabetical list of states, its representatives often had to wait longer to speak at national meetings, putting the state at what it described as an administrative disadvantage. An all-party meeting supported the proposal that year, but the Centre did not clear it.In 2016, the government revived the exercise with three versions of the name: Bangla in Bengali, Bengal in English and Bangal in Hindi. In 2018, the Assembly unanimously passed a resolution proposing Bangla as the sole name.That proposal too was not approved by the Centre, which cited the need for a constitutional amendment, while a section of BJP leaders in the state also raised concerns over the similarity between Bangla and Bangladesh. Bhattacharya's announcement on Monday linked the latest renaming push with the proposed Varanasi cultural centre and the longer history of attempts to change the state's name.Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has also supported this statement by Samik Bhattacharya.- Ends