Race Course Road is now Lok Kalyan Marg
Prime Minister's residence will now be known as 7 LKM.
NEW DELHI: India's most famous address will no longer be 7, Race Course Road (RCR). The road in Delhi on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi lives has been renamed as ‘Lok Kalyan Marg’. The decision to this effect was taken at an New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Once the notification is issued, the PM’s famous residential address 7 RCR will be known as 7 Lok Kalyan Marg (LKM). The NDMC has also decided to rename the Gurudwara Rakabganj round-about adjacent to the Parliament complex as Guru Gobind Singh Chowk following representations from various Sikh organisations.
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who is a member of the NDMC Council, had proposed renaming Race Course Road as Ekatama Marg based on the philosophy of the party’s ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay but it was not accepted.
In the meeting, Kejriwal proposed to rename the Race Course Road after Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, but some members were not convinced. “I had proposed renaming of the road after Guru Govind Singh while Lekhi said it should be renamed as Ekatama Marg. I suggested that the PM should be consulted on this but the Council members decided that on the basis of suggestions received from public, the road should be renamed as Lok Kalyan Marg,” Kejriwal said.
AAP MLA Surinder Singh, also member of the Council, opposed Lekhi’s proposal to rename the road as Ekatama Marg. NDMC chairperson Naresh Kumar said it was a unanimous decision to change the name of the road as Lok Kalyan Marg.
The change of name of Gurudwara Rakabganj round-about to Guru Gobind Singh Chowk is seen as an effort to woo the Sikh community by both BJP and AAP ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls early next year.