West Bengal’s search for a new name ends at Paschimbanga

A consensus to rename West Bengal as Paschimbanga was reached on Friday at an all-party meeting to change the nomenclature of the state.

After a second round of discussions with all political parties for one-and-half hours, chief minister Mamata Banerjee endorsed — of all the names proposed — Paschimbanga.

Later, speaking to the media, TMC leader Partha Chatterjee and CPI(M) leader of the House, Suryakanta Mishra, said: “It may not be very satisfactory, but keeping in mind the history and overall agreement with all political parties, we have decided for Paschimbanga.”

“What was more important was the consensus and that alphabetically we’ll have some administrative advantages as we would be closer to A,’’ Chatterjee said.

When asked why Paschim (west) should be tagged with Banga, even when there was no other Bengal - that is East Bengal, Chatterjee, who is both the parliamentary affairs minister and the industry minister, said: “We have not pondered on these issues, but to us consensus was more important.’’

However, the TMC leader could not say as to how much time it would take to adopt the new name constitutionally.