Centre not considering renaming West Bengal, says Mamata Banerjee after Kerala name change

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the Union government has not considered repeated requests made by her government to change the name of the state to “Bangla”, The Hindu reported.

The comment came hours after the Union Cabinet approved the renaming of Kerala as “Keralam”.

The Trinamool Congress chief claimed that an “understanding” between the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre and Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) had helped the state get a new name, PTI reported.

In a video message, Banerjee asked why West Bengal had to “sit in Y-Z for so long?”, The Hindu reported. She was referring to West Bengal beginning with W, which places the name toward the end of the alphabetical order.

The Trinamool Congress government in the state has long pushed for the change, arguing that West Bengal is at a disadvantage in meetings where states speak in alphabetical order. Officials have complained that they get little time to present their views.

“When the boys and girls of our state go for exams, they have to sit on the back bench,” The Hindu quoted Banerjee as saying on Tuesday. “Whenever I go somewhere as the chief minister, I am given the last chance to be given this name in alphabetical order.”

The chief minister said that the West Bengal government had passed resolutions in the Legislative Assembly...

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