The Congress party is likely to shift to a new party headquarters on its foundation day, on December 28. The new premises, which is coming up at 9, Kotla Road in Central Delhi, will be named ‘Indira Gandhi Bhawan’ after late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
According to the reports, the new headquarters will be inaugurated by the party’s interim President Sonia Gandhi on the 130th foundation day. Currently, All India Congress Committee (AICC) is located at 24, Akbar Road, a government bungalow, which has been serving as the party’s headquarters for the last four decades. The upcoming party office on Kotla road will be a six-floor building near the BJP’s national office on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg. The hi-tech office building has been designed by award-winning architect Hafeez Contractor, and constructed by L&T.
The new Congress office will have two gates, one which opens on the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, but the party has decided to make its Kotla Road entrance as its main gate, which will also serve as the official address of the party. This has been done to avoid getting associated with the road named after the RSS ideologue, and also to have a different address than the BJP headquarters.
Besides the current 24, Akbar Road AICC headquarters, the party runs other offices in the national capital. Sewa Dal, a wing of the party has its main office at 26, Akbar Road. In addition to that, the Youth Congress and NSUI have their office at 5, Raisina Road, all of them government properties.
The shifting of party headquarters comes as the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, which is in charge of land and buildings in the capital, had issued notices to Congress party to vacate the bungalows. The new party headquarters will also be the new address for Sewa Dal, NSUI and IYC.
As per the policy on Allotment of Land to Political Parties for building their own party offices, Congress party was required to vacate in June 2013 the four bungalows that are in its possession.
Following a Supreme Court order, all political parties were required to vacate properties in the Lutyens Bungalow Zone and were given land in other places to build party offices. They were required to give up their LBZ bungalows within three years of taking possession of the land.
The allotments were done after the Supreme Court, on the basis of a PIL petition, asked political parties to shift out of the zone, which is for residential purposes, and move to Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg, earmarked for institutional land.