The Congress on Wednesday relocated its central office to 24 Akbar Road in New Delhi for the past 47 years, an address that has become synonymous with the 139-year-old party and has witnessed a significant part of its recent history. be.
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi inaugurated a five-storey headquarters on Wednesday and laid out the script for the party’s new chapter as it moves from Lutyens’ Delhi, weeks before assembly polls are held in the national capital on February 5. It is planned to be established.
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Congress officials said the open and welcoming environment of Akbar Street, with few restrictions for media and party officials, would be significantly restricted in the new office.
Two Congress leaders said the media would be allowed access only up to the first floor of the two-acre 9A Kotla Marg compound, which is the rival Bharatiya Janata Party’s headquarters a short distance from the new Parliament. This is a measure that is being implemented. office.
The fifth floor of Indira Bhawan will house the offices of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Congress opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
“All three offices will have large spaces, rooms for secretarial staff, and central air conditioning systems,” a parliamentary source said.
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The fourth floor will be reserved for the general secretary, while the third floor will be occupied by state officials. The second floor is used by the All India Secretary and his staff.
“The first floor will house all departments and cells. The first floor will house conference rooms, media rooms and reception,” the leader added.
A senior council official involved in media affairs said entry would be restricted to the second, third, fourth and fifth floors, adding: “Outsiders can only visit the first floor. The upper floors are by advance reservation. Available only if
Parliament had previously planned to inaugurate the new building on December 28, but it had to be postponed due to the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
400 party leaders from across the country were invited to the inauguration ceremony.
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The Akbar Road bungalow was once home to Sir Reginald Maxwell, a member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of Linlithgow. It was also home to the teenage Aung San Suu Kyi, who later became Myanmar’s state counselor, when her mother was appointed ambassador to India in 1961.
On a cold January morning in 1978, a team of 20 breakaway Congress workers led by Indira Gandhi entered the premises, the first Congress members to do so.
The spacious grounds witnessed the party’s parliamentary election victories in 1980, 1984, 1991, 2004 and 2009. Type VII, one of the largest bungalows in Lutyen’s Delhi, was also the scene of the collapse of the now out-of-power Congress. Lok Sabha elections for the third consecutive year.
