Late Dr Manmohan Singh was born in Gah, now in Pakistan's Chakwal district, and came to India along with his family after partition. He settled in Haldwani but got a sense of belonging in India through a Guwahati address, it was his rental address. India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh passed away at the age of 92 on December 26. Check his Assam connection.
Manmohan Singh's Guwahati home
Dr Manmohan Singh went to Assam when he became a Rajya Sabha member from there. In 1991, then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao chose Dr Singh as his finance minister, and he went to North East as an 'outsider'.
He lived in Assam for three-decades until 2019. The Congress lost power to Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam in 2016. Singh was reelected to Rajya Sabha from Assam in 1995, 2001, 2007, and 2013.
Manmohan Singh paid rent even as a Prime Minister
In Assam, house number 3989, Nandan Nagar, Sarumotoria, Guwahati, remained his address until his fifth Rajya Sabha term ended in 2019. The 2 BHK apartment in the premises of the personal home of former Assam chief minister Hiteswar Saikia became Dr Singh's rented accommodation.
Dr Singh took the house on rent for Rs 700 and used to pay the rent always on time by cheque. As a Prime Minister also, he used to pay the rent of that accommodation.
Assam and North East accepted Dr Manmohan Singh and his family in a way that they transferred their names as voters from Delhi to Assam, to a polling station in Dispur.
Owner of that house, Ms Saikia told the media that they never rented out the house to anyone else after Dr Singh left. Now, only his memories reside there as the three-decade-long bond is now snapped!
Manmohan Singh shifted to Delhi in 1971
Dr Manmohan Singh joined central government services in 1971 as an economic advisor in the commerce ministry. His profiles -- Chief Economic Advisor, Reserve Bank of India Governor and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, would require him to remain in the National capital. Manmohan Singh and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, have two houses in Delhi's Vasant Kunj and Chandigarh's Sector 11B.