ASSEMBLY-LD-RESOLUTION 2 LST

Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan said that Congress Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan said that Congresswanted either a mass vote on the issue or wanted a committeeto be set up to decide it. On Mannan’s statement, Banerjee said "We all had gonethrough a mass vote three months back in the state (duringAssembly poll) and the results are before us". Left Front legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty saidthat they were not against the name change. "We don’t oppose the new name ‘Bangla’ but we wonder howthere can be three names for the state – one in Bengali, onein English and another in Hindi," he said. "Uttar Pradesh is called Uttar Pradesh in all languagesand not called Northern Province in English," he pointed out. BJP MLA Dilip Ghosh opposed the name change citing that itconstituted an attempt to wipe out the painful history of thePartition that the state had gone through. "We have already made our position clear on this issue. Wewill also tell the central government that the state should becalled ‘Paschimbanga’ in all languages", he said. BJP leader and Union minister Babul Suprio, however,favoured the name ‘Bangla’. "Earlier I had a talk with TMC leader Derek O’Brien andtold him that ‘Bangla’ is better than ‘Bango’," he said. BJP National secretary Rahul Sinha described it as a"personal opinion" of Babul Supriyo. "He has no conception of the historical perspective. Hemostly lived in Mumbai. BJP is fighting for retaining thename ‘Pachimbanga’," he said. PTI PNT SUN MDSMJ