Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee president G S Tohra on Tuesday asked over 700,000 Sikh voters in Delhi to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the December 1 assembly election.

"Some sections of Sikh voters in Delhi have been siding with the Congress. But there is need to remind them that when we as Indians have not been able to forgive the atrocities committed by Mughal rulers more than 300 years back, how can we forgive the Congress for the Blue Star and the 1984 riots?" Tohra said in New Delhi.

"Congress branded Sikhs as terrorists, extremists and separatists...but the BJP has brought us back into the mainstream and declared that we are as nationalist as any other Indian," said Manjit Singh Calcutta, SGPC secretary and former Punjab education minister.
 
To a question why the Akalis are not going with the BJP in Rajasthan, Tohra said: "We did not go with Congress either. We had a choice and we opted for that."

He said the Akali Dal does have some differences with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, but "we are trying to sort them out."

He said the government is planning to send a delegation to Pakistan to work out a schedule for allowing more pilgrims to the gurudwaras there.