The West Bengal Cabinet on Tuesday decided to rename the state Bangla or Bongo in Bengali. It will be called Bengal in English. The news was confirmed by Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee, who said a special Assembly session will be convened to discuss the name change, ANI reported.
The Mamata Banerjee government had decided to drop "West" from the name of the state so that it does not come last alphabetically, officials said. This comes after the chief minister got to speak last at the Inter-State Council Meeting earlier this month, according to The Indian Express.
The ruling party in the state had decided to rename West Bengal to Paschimbanga in 2011, "to raise the state’s position alphabetically". Besides TMC, Opposition parties led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had also supported the move then.
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