• Source:JND

Delhi Election 2025: Amid a row over the demand for a memorial for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, several opposition parties, including Congress, Akali Dal, and the Aam Aadmi Party, are claiming that the central government is disrespecting the former prime minister by not allocating a memorial for the first Sikh prime minister of the country. 

The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are also trying to lure the Sikh voters ahead of the Delhi assembly election due in February next year. The total population of Sikhs in Delhi is almost 4 per cent; however, there are several constituencies where the Sikh voters can decide the poll result.

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While the Sikh population in Rajauri Garden and Tilak Nagar constituencies is a whopping 35 per cent, the community has a share of 17 per cent in the Hari Nagar constituency. While the Aam Aadmi Party has got good support from the Sikh community in the last two state assembly elections, the BJP did well in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

Though the BJP used to share few seats with the Akali Dal in the past elections, especially in the Chandani Chowk region, they are not coalition partners anymore, and the saffron party is trying to get the support from the community by the inclusion of leaders like Arvind Lovely. The Congress is also trying to find the support from the community back in the national capital. Earlier, BJP president JP Nadda slammed Congress for doing 'dirty politics' over the death of the former prime minister. 

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In a video posted on X, Nadda claimed that the grand old party leaders disrespected Manmohan Singh. “No amount of condemnation is enough for such cheap thinking of the Congress,” Nadda said in the video. “The Congress, which never gave real respect to Manmohan Singh when he was alive, is now playing politics in the name of his respect,” Nadda added in the video posted on X.