West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has backed a proposal to rename the state “Paschim Bang” and said that any changes should be made in the right legal and legislative way. The proposed change has revived the long-standing debate over the state's official name, and the BJP-led state government is expected to take the matter to the Assembly.
Adhikari's position comes as reports suggest the state government is preparing to introduce a bill to formally change West Bengal's name. BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya has also indicated that such legislation could be brought before the Assembly, possibly during the ongoing or upcoming session.
According to the report, the name is “Paschim Bang” instead of the current official English name “West Bengal.” The proposal will be presented as an attempt to connect the state’s official identity with the historical and linguistic origins.
“There is a process for it. Just as West Bengal is called ‘West Bengal,’ it should be called ‘Paschim Bang’,” Adhikari said, according to the statement.
The Chief Minister’s remarks tell us that the proposed change would not just be an administrative announcement. A change in a state’s name is constitutional and legislative, and the proposal would have to go through the appropriate authorities before it could be made official.
Nandigram, West Bengal: On BJP State President Samik Bhattacharya’s statement, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari says, “It should be done. Just as West Bengal is called ‘West Bengal,’ it should be called ‘Paschim Bang.’ It should be done legally by introducing a bill in the Assembly. There is a process for it…"
— IANS (@ians_india) October 6, 2026
This is a historical matter. For decades, proposals for changing the name of West Bengal have been in the making. In 1999, the Left Front government under then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had made proposals for changing the name of the state at the time. “Paschim Banga” was one of them. It was then discussed again in 2011 and 2016 in other names such as “Bangla.” The 2016 proposal by the West Bengal Assembly proposed new names in English and Bengali, but the Centre did not approve it.
The present proposal is different in a significant and important way in that “Paschim Bang” will be used as a common name and not as a separate one for different languages. Supporters of the proposal have linked the name to Bengal’s history and formation of West Bengal after the Partition of Bengal in 1947.
BJP leaders have argued that the proposed name has a historical connection to the state's identity. When Samik Bhattacharya spoke about a proposal, he said: “It was a demand to make in the history of the creation of West Bengal and not just some new political initiative.”
The proposal is also likely to trigger political debate since the question of what the state should be called has been a matter of competing views between political parties and governments before. Previous attempts to change the name had difficulty in terms of appropriate terminology and with central approval from the government.
A formal change of name would eventually mean administrative implications for residents and institutions. If approved, government departments and official documents, national papers, signage, databases, and other documents could need to be updated if the proposal will eventually be approved.
But at present, the state is still known as West Bengal. The Assembly bill would be a proposal and not a change in the state’s legal name in such a way that it would be part of the state's legal name immediately. The outcome will be decided in a political manner as well as constitutionally.
The discussion on “Paschim Bang” is just one more chapter in West Bengal’s long-running argument for or against the official identity of the region. The state government now wants to take up the issue through legislation, so we will see the Assembly and whether other political parties react.
If the proposal is approved and passed, it would then be subject to the required constitutional process before the name could change. And until those steps are complete, “West Bengal” will remain the state’s official name.
