New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Kerala government’s proposal to rename the state as Keralam, setting in motion the constitutional process required to alter the name recorded in the First Schedule of the Constitution. Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced the decision after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Narendra Modi, held at Seva Teerth, the new Prime Minister’s Office complex.
Following the Cabinet’s clearance, the President of India will refer the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, to the Kerala Legislative Assembly for its views, in line with the proviso to Article 3 of the Constitution. Once the Assembly’s response is received, the Union government will seek the President’s recommendation to introduce the Bill in Parliament.
Prime Minister Modi welcomed the decision, saying it reflects the will of the people of the state and aligns with efforts to strengthen links with India’s cultural heritage. He shared his remarks in a post on X shortly after the Cabinet meeting.
The move comes ahead of the Kerala Assembly elections, scheduled for April, with the tenure of the current 140-member Assembly ending on May 23. Addressing questions on the timing, Vaishnaw said Cabinet decisions are taken without reference to electoral calendars. “Decisions of setting up new rail corridors and starting Vande Bharat trains in Kerala were taken up when elections were not there. Elections will be held, but all decisions which are in the interest of the country will be taken,” he said.
The Cabinet decision follows a unanimous resolution passed by the Kerala Assembly on June 24, 2024. In that resolution, the Assembly noted that while the state is known as “Keralam” in the Malayalam language, the Constitution continues to record its name as “Kerala”. It recalled that states were reorganised on linguistic lines on November 1, 1956, the date observed as Kerala Piravi Day, and that there has been a longstanding demand since the independence era for a unified Malayalam-speaking state.
The resolution appealed to the Centre to take urgent steps under Article 3 to modify the state’s name. Acting on this request, the matter was examined by the Ministry of Home Affairs and approved by Union Home
Minister Amit Shah. A draft Cabinet note was then circulated to the Department of Legal Affairs and the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Law and Justice, both of which concurred with the proposal.
Article 3 empowers Parliament to alter the name of an existing state through legislation but requires prior presidential recommendation and consultation with the concerned state legislature. With the Cabinet’s approval now in place, the proposal to rename Kerala as Keralam has entered the formal constitutional process.