Overview
- India’s Home Ministry issued a directive on December 1 making the Raj Bhavan-to-Lok Bhavan name change official with immediate effect across all states.
- State offices have begun adopting the change in public communications, with Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat announcing the shift to “Gujarat Lokbhavan.”
- Officials and supportive coverage frame the renaming as a symbolic signal that public office is a responsibility rooted in service rather than privilege.
- The decision is presented alongside earlier rebrandings such as Rajpath to Kartavya Path, Race Course Road to Lok Kalyan Marg, Central Secretariat to Kartavya Bhavan, and the PMO campus as Seva Teerth.
- Parallel political developments include BJP-backed candidates winning 7 of 10 posts in the Kolkata High Court Bar Association election, reports of an RSS–BJP huddle in Lucknow discussing a new Uttar Pradesh BJP chief this week, and fluid alliances in Maharashtra local-body polls.