The Kerala legislative assembly on Wednesday (August 9) unanimously passed a resolution asking the Centre to officially change the state's name to 'Keralam'.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who moved the resolution asked the central government to change the state's name to 'Keralam' in all languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

The resolution was accepted by the Congress-led UDF opposition which did not suggest any amendments or modifications in it. Later, the resolution was declared unanimously adopted by the assembly by Speaker A N Shamseer.

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Presenting the resolution, Vijayan said the state was called 'Keralam' in Malayalam, but in other languages it was still Kerala. He said that the need to form a united Kerala for the Malayalam-speaking communities had strongly emerged since the time of the national freedom struggle.

"But the name of our state is written as Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution. This Assembly unanimously requests the Union Government to take immediate steps to amend it as 'Keralam' under Article 3 of the Constitution and it is renamed as 'Keralam' in all the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution," he said in Kerala assembly.