Congress gets notices to vacate 24 Akbar Road office and Youth Congress premises on Raisina Road

The Centre has issued notices to the Congress to vacate its 24, Akbar Road office, and 5, Raisina Road premises where Youth Congress functions, by March 28.

The notice was sent by the Estate Department under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, informed sources said, adding they were served in mid-March and the party faces eviction, as it is the final notice sent by the department.

The party has been told that its new headquarters already functions from Indira Bhavan on Kotla Road and it is not entitled to hold on to the premises, the sources said.

The iconic 24 Akbar Road office has been the address of the Congress for the past 48 years.

Congress sources said the party was still formulating its strategy to counter the notices and was keeping options open of moving court.

A two-member Congress delegation led by G.S. Sappal, in-charge of Administration, met Urban Development Minister M.L. Khattar over the notices.

The party, according to Congress sources, was paying market rent for its 24, Akbar Road office and there were attempts to get the bungalow allocated to a party MP so that it could hold on to it but it did not materialise.

When it shifted to Indira Bhavan office on Kotla Marg, Congress sources had indicated that the party will not vacate 24, Akbar Road and it will continue to house some of its cells arguing that the BJP has not vacated its old headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road, even after shifting to DDU Marg.

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said the government should apply its rule uniformly to all and not single it out while BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the Congress should shed the “sense of entitlement and unnecessary victimhood card”, recalling the policy made under the UPA government that parties would shift their offices from Lutyens to DDU Marg or to Rouse Avenue.

The 24 Akbar Road address has been the Congress headquarters since January 1978 when Indira Gandhi along with her supporters of the break-away faction of the Congress had mad it the office after her election loss following the lifting of Emergency.

Before 1978, the Congress had its headquarters on 7, Jantar Mantar Road and 5, Rajendra Prasad Road. The split in 1969 led to losing the office in Jantar Mantar Road and it had moved to 5, Rajendra Prasad Road.