West Bengal could soon have a new official name - Paschim Banga. The BJP-led state government is preparing to introduce a Bill in the Assembly seeking
to formally rename West Bengal, state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya has said. Bhattacharya announced the plan on October 5, saying the proposed name was meant to preserve the state's historical identity. He made it clear that the BJP does not want the state to be renamed simply “Bangla”, a proposal pursued by the previous Trinamool Congress government. “We will bring a Bill in the very first session so that the name of the state remains connected with its history and retains its identity. The name of the state will be Paschim Banga,” Bhattacharya said. He also drew a direct link between the proposed name and Partition. “It will be neither West Bengal nor merely Bangla. Bengal was divided and one part went away. What remains is West Bengal. Paschim Banga is the name that reflects that identity,” Bhattacharya said. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has backed the proposal, while stressing that the change must follow the legal process. “It should be done. Just as West Bengal is called ‘West Bengal,’ it should be called ‘Paschim Banga.’ It should be done legally by introducing a bill in the Assembly. There is a process for it…” Adhikari said. The name-change debate is not new. Attempts to rename West Bengal go back to 1999, when the Jyoti Basu-led Left Front government considered “Paschim Banga”. The issue resurfaced after Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011. Her government initially backed “Paschim Banga”, before later pushing different formulations including “Bangla”. In 2016, the Assembly passed a resolution proposing “Bangla” in Bengali, “Bengal” in English and “Bangal” in Hindi. In 2018, it passed another resolution proposing “Bangla” as the single name. Neither proposal received the required approval at the Centre. There is also a constitutional hurdle ahead. A state cannot change its legal name merely through an Assembly resolution or Bill. Under Article 3, the final alteration of a state's name requires Parliament to pass legislation, following the prescribed process and consultation with the state legislature.
