Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 9 (IANS): The Kerala Assembly on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to officially change the state's name to 'Keralam'.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan presented the resolution in the Kerala Legislative Assembly requesting the Centre to change the name of the state.

He said, “The name of our state is Keralam in the Malayalam language. States were formed based on language on November 1, 1956. Kerala Day is also on November 1.

"The need to unite Kerala for the Malayalam-speaking communities has been strongly evident since the time of the national freedom struggle. However, the name of our state is listed as Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution.

"This Assembly unanimously requests the Union Government to take immediate steps to amend it to 'Keralam' under Article 3 of the Constitution.

"This House also requests that our state be renamed as 'Keralam' in all the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution," reads the resolution.