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India likely to rename West Bengal as Banga

Banerjee complains she barely gets a chance to speak in meetings with PM because West Bengal came at the end of list

Reuters August 03, 2016

Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, gestures during a news conference after a meeting of her Trinamool Congress party (TMC) in Kolkata September 18, 2012. PHOTO: REUTERS

Fed up with having to speak last, or not at all, at meetings of Indian regional leaders, the chief minister of West Bengal wants to ditch the state's first name so that she can get her say.

Mamata Banerjee's cabinet approved a resolution on Tuesday to call the state, actually located in eastern India, "Bengal" in English - one of India's official languages.

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State lawmakers would also get to choose between the Bengali names "Bangla" or "Bonga", said state minister Partha Chatterjee.

The feisty Banerjee, 61, had complained that she barely got a chance to speak in meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi because West Bengal came at the end of a list of India's 29 states arranged alphabetically.

An earlier initiative to rename the state Paschim Banga - or West Bengal in the vernacular - would have moved it only about a quarter of the way up the list. But it was never approved by the New Delhi government.

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State capital Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, was once the headquarters of the British East India Company. But a decision to relocate the capital of imperial India to Delhi in 1911 ushered in a period of relative decline.

Independence and partition in 1947 then led to the division of the province of Bengal into predominantly Hindu West Bengal and mostly Muslim East Bengal, which is now part of Bangladesh.

COMMENTS (10)

S | 7 years ago | Reply @Rama: Even we Pakistanis can't fathom that. Probably because many Indians visit this site. On a serious note, are they seriously considering name "Bonga"? :)

Kiran | 7 years ago | Reply The reason given for name change is nothing but stupid. Chief ministers are not needed to wait in queue in chronological order of the state name to speak with PM. The real reason for name change is local demand for erasing anglican name of cities and states. "Banga" was the ancient name of current west bengal and bangladesh territory. This name was mentioned in many literature as "Banga Pradesh", "Banga desham", "Vanga nadu" etc.