Kerala’s BJP leadership has sought the Centre’s help in renaming the state “Keralam”, taking up an issue the Left government had pursued a couple of years ago.
The Left government had come out with a resolution in the Assembly in June 2024 seeking to rename the state.
State BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to rename the state Keralam, which the party said was rooted in Malayalam.
In the letter, Chandrasekhar highlighted that the BJP’s ideology was grounded in protecting and respecting the state’s traditions and linguistic culture.
“I am hoping that all political parties will work together to revive and preserve the rich traditional heritage of Keralam. A Keralam deeply rooted in history whilst working for a bright, prosperous future for all Malayalees will also serve to blunt the efforts of some radical elements in our society, who continue to raise demands for carving out more ‘separate districts’ on the basis of religion to fragment our state,” Chandrasekhar wrote.
When chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan adopted a resolution in June 2024, he had urged the Centre to change the state’s name to Keralam in all languages that are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Vijayan stated that even though the name was written as Keralam in Malayalam, including in official documents, it was written as Kerala in other languages, including English.
He had added that since Independence, there had always been a strong need to form a united Kerala for the Malayalam-speaking communities.
A constitutional amendment is required to change the name of the state. Vijayan called for invoking Article 3 of the Constitution to effectuate this change in the First Schedule.
In August 2023 also there had been an attempt by the Vijayan-led LDF government to rename the state. But the Centre sent back Kerala’s proposal due to procedural issues. The Union home ministry had urged the state government to focus on amending only the First Schedule, which prompted the state to modify the resolution and pass it again on August 9, 2023.