BJP leadership opposes Bengal renaming even as Supriyo, Ahluwalia back Mamata

Even though two Union ministers have openly backed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's decision to rename the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) national leadership has opposed the proposal.

“Renaming the state means distorting the history,” said Siddharth Nath Singh, BJP's national secretary. He added: “It is not about repositioning the state's name in the list.  With this decision, the state leadership has shown disrespect to the history and we condemn it.”

Earlier, too, the BJP’s West Bengal unit had accused Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) of trying to tamper with the history of Bengal's Partition by proposing to change the state’s name and drop ‘West’ from it. State party chief Dilip Ghosh has said that he would take up the matter with the Centre and ensure that the Mamata Banerjee government is not given the permission to “change the history”.

Even the BJP's national leadership has backed Ghosh, saying that his view would be the party’s view.

However, MoS for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Babul Supriyo and MoS for Parliamentary Affairs SS Ahluwalia have supported Banerjee's proposal to rename the state. “It is a great idea. Fantastic! We have the Royal Bengal tiger,” Supriyo said. “Banga (pronounced Bongo) is an instrument people play and we shouldn't have this name,” the Asansol MP added.

Meanwhile, Twitter too is flooded with reactions. While some have expressed surprise over the renaming issue, others appeared amused as the state government came up with the proposal, raising the alphabetic position of West Bengal (by renaming it either Bangla or Banga) on the state list too.