Banerjee, bungalow and the superstition

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has been allotted a huge bungalow at Akbar Road, but she is not interested in shifting there. She has been using a flat in the MS building near Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital since 1999 and prefers to continue there. While one of the reasons for her reluctance to shift to the new bungalow is to maintain a low profile and a humble lifestyle, there’s another important reason — the bungalow was previously occupied by Mani Shankar Aiyar of the Congress. The Panchayati Raj Minister of the previous UPA government lost in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and Banerjee has “reservations” about moving to the same bungalow. She told one of her party MPs: “Manishankar has lost the election while using the bungalow. I don’t wish to take it.”