Race Course Road to be now called Lok Kalyan Marg

NEW DELHI: The landmark 7 Race Course Road, the official address of India’s Prime Minister, is history. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday approved

NEW DELHI: The landmark 7 Race Course Road, the official address of India’s Prime Minister, is history. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday approved the renaming of the Race Course Road as Lok Kalyan Marg.

HT Image

A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) presided over by Kejriwal, who is a member of the civic body. A notification will be issued soon to complete the process of renaming.

New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi had earlier submitted a proposal to the NDMC to rename the road based on the philosophy of BJP ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay as ‘Ekatma Marg’. She had said the existing name, Race Course Road, “does not match with the Indian culture”.

In the meeting, the Delhi CM proposed to rename the 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 Ekatma Marg. I also suggested that the PM should be consulted on this but the council members decided that on the basis of suggestions received from the people, the road should be renamed as Lok Kalyan Marg,” Kejriwal said.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal had also tweeted, “A no. of Sikh groups met me. They want RCR to be named after Sh Guru Gobind Singh ji.”

AAP MLA Surinder Singh, also member of the council, had also opposed Lekhi’s proposal to rename the road as Ekatma Marg.

NDMC chairperson Naresh Kumar said it was a unanimous decision to change the name of the road as Lok Kalyan Marg.

The council also decided to rename the Gurudwara Rakabganj roundabout near the Parliament complex as Guru Gobind Singh Chowk following representations from various Sikh organisations.

This is the second road in the Lutyens’ Zone of Delhi to be renamed in recent times. Last year, Aurangzeb Road was renamed as APJ Abdul Kalam Road after the former president.