Zeenews Bureau
Kolkata: The West Bengal government and the opposition parties on Friday unanimously decided to rename the state Paschim Banga, state Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee announced.
"It has been unanimously decided by all the parties under the leadership of our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that from now onwards West Bengal will be called Paschim Banga. From now onwards, in English also, the name of our state will be written as Paschim Banga," Chatterjee said while addressing a media conference here.
"We have agreed with the state government regarding the renaming of West Bengal into Paschim Banga," opposition leader Surya Kanta Mishra of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPi-M) said after the meeting.
"While considering the name, we considered all the aspects including administrative, historical and social aspects," said Chatterjee.
A committee on Friday proposed the "shortlisted new names" for West Bengal at an all-party meeting.
The committee comprised of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee and opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra. On Thursday, the Left Front shortlisted four names - Bangla, Paschim Banga, Banga Pradesh and Bangabhumi.
"The new name will now be passed in the state assembly then it will be sent to the union ministry of home affairs. From there, it will go to the parliament and then to the president for assent," Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Manoj Bhattacharjee who was present in the meeting, said.
"We felt that due to historical and administrative reasons, all of us wanted to rename the state. After lot of discussion we found that it is better to have a name which is closer to the alphabet `A`. We may not be very closer to `A` but we have upgraded ourselves from `W` to `P` which is much closer to `A`," Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee said at a media conference here.
(With IANS inputs)
