The Kerala Assembly on Wednesday took a historic step towards changing the name of the state from ‘Kerala’ to ‘Keralam’ by unanimously approving the President’s nod to the proposal.
President Draupadi Murmu referred the Kerala (Change of Name) Bill, 2026 to the state assembly for his opinion. This is the first time that a presidential reference has been sent to the Kerala Assembly.
At around noon on Wednesday, the House considered the legislation. Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan read out all 10 clauses of the bill, including its title and provisions, and lawmakers belonging to the UDF, LDF and BJP approved it unanimously without objection.
“We have witnessed a historic occasion today. The House will convey its opinion to the Union government and the President,” Speaker Radhakrishnan said.
The draft law will now be presented to Parliament. Once passed by Parliament and notified in the Official Gazette, the name of the State will be changed from “Kerala” to “Keralam” in all official languages and media.
The Kerala Assembly unanimously adopted resolutions in 2023 and 2024 urging the Union government to change the name of the state to “Keralam”, reflecting how it is pronounced and written in Malayalam.
The then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said in the Assembly in 2023, “The name of our state in Malayalam is Kerala. The states were formed on linguistic lines in the country on November 1, 1956. The day of formation of Kerala is on the same day. It was a demand during the freedom struggle to form a united Kerala for all Malayalam speakers.”
The proposal to change the state’s name was approved by the Union Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on February 24, 2026.
