Kerala will be Keralam; Assembly unanimously approves State's renaming

The Kerala Assembly on Wednesday unanimously approved all the 10 clauses of the Draft Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026.

The Bill, which seeks to rename Kerala as Keralam in all official communications and proceedings, was referred to the Kerala Legislature by President Droupadi Murmu on June 17 to elicit the opinions of Kerala legislators. This is the first time a Presidential reference has been sent to Kerala Assembly.

Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan read out all the 10 clauses in the Keralam Bill and the House unanimously approved each of them with a voice vote. This is also the first unanimous decision taken by the 16th Kerala Assembly. And possibly the last as the 16th Assembly has three BJP members.

The Speaker said that the sense of the Assembly would be conveyed to the President and the Central Government. He also lauded the Centre for the quick steps it had taken.

The Keralam Bill will now be officially moved in Parliament and would be published in the official gazette. From then on, Kerala will officially be Keralam.

On June 24, 2024, a Resolution introduced by then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to rename the state of Kerala as "Keralam" was unanimously approved by the Kerala Assembly. The Resolution was then sent to the Centre for approval.

A year ago, on August 2023, a similar resolution was passed unanimously and forwarded to the Centre seeking "immediate steps” to amend the state's name under Article 3 of the Constitution that pertains to the formation of states, any alterations to its areas, boundaries, or names of existing states.

But the Centre had then put forward a technical objection prompting the previous LDF government to rework the Resolution, which was then introduced as a fresh one in 2024.