CM Mamata renews demand for renaming West Bengal as 'Bangla' after Kerala's name change

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday renewed the demand for renaming West Bengal as 'Bangla' as the union government gave its green signal for changing Kerala's name to 'Keralam', a decision which she attributed to an "alliance growing" between the BJP and CPI(M).

Soon after a meeting of the union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared the proposal of Kerala Assembly, she "congratulated the brothers and sisters" in the south Indian state even as she accused the BJP government of not approving West Bengal's proposal because of it being "anti-Bengali".

Mamata’s quick response is seen as Trinamool’s attempt to raise the decibel levels against the BJP in poll-bound West Bengal where her party has been accusing the saffron camp of insulting Bengal icons. She has also used it to target CPI(M) by alleging a relationship between the Left party and the BJP.

"Kerala has been renamed since there is an alliance growing between the BJP and the CPIM. The alliance is not unwritten anymore after today. Why will Bengal face deprivation always? One day, you [BJP] will not be in power. We will get the name changed," she said.

She said the names of several states are changed once such proposals are endorsed by the respective state governments but that has not been the case with West Bengal.

"When our students go for exams or interviews, they are called at the end since the name of the state begins with ‘W’, which comes at the end alphabetically. I too face the same problem. I get the chance to speak at the end as I am the Chief Minister of West Bengal," she said.

"Based on the culture of the state, we wanted to rename West Bengal as Bangla. In this regard, we have passed resolutions twice in the Legislative Assembly. After we were told that the name of the state should be the same in Hindi, Bengali and English, we passed a resolution again to rename the state as Bangla in all three languages," she said.

She said she has raised the demand whenever she met Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah but "much to my surprise, nothing has happened". 

"I think they are not approving it because they are anti-Bengali. They disrespect the icons and visionaries of Bengal. They only use the word ‘Bangla’ during polls to get electoral benefit. That is why they have not given the approval to rename the state," she alleged.

The union government's approval for change in name, which will be followed by the President referring a Bill for change in name to Kerala Assembly for comments and then Parliament passing it, came after a resolution passed by state Assembly in 2024. A similar resolution passed by Kerala in 2023 was rejected owing to procedural problems.

Asked why the 2023 resolution was rejected and whether the latest decision was driven by upcoming polls in Kerala, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw told reporters that the union cabinet had cleared several development programmes for Kerala when there was no elections.