 "Congress to move out of 24, Akbar Road after nearly five decades")
The Congress party’s national headquarters, located at 24, Akbar Road in the national capital’s Lutyens Bungalow Zone (LBZ) since 1978, will have a new address on Wednesday when former party chief Sonia Gandhi inaugurates the Indira Gandhi Bhavan at 9A Kotla Marg in Central Delhi.
Subsequent to a Supreme Court order asking political parties to move their registered offices out of the LBZ, the Centre in 2005-06 identified the area between New Delhi’s ITO (Income Tax Office) traffic junction and Connaught Place, with Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Marg connecting the two landmarks, for allotting plots of land to political parties.
Within walking distance of the Congress’ new office are the national headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party, located on DDU Marg. The Communist Party of India (CPI)’s national headquarters, Ajoy Bhavan, and the CPI(M)’s permanent party school, HKS Surjeet Bhavan, are also nearby.
Plots have also been allotted in the area to other parties, including the Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and Rashtriya Janata Dal, some of which have inaugurated their new offices. The Delhi unit of the Congress also has an office on DDU Marg, while the BJP’s Delhi unit is constructing an office nearby.
The area also houses offices of trade unions, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), which is the trade union arm of the CPI and the Centre for India Trade Unions (CITU), the trade union arm of the CPI (M).
The Centre had also identified land for offices of political parties New Delhi’s Saket and Vasant Vihar localities. The Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal (United), and AIADMK either have or are constructing their respective office buildings in these areas.
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The inauguration dates and locations of these buildings hold significance. The Congress opted to have the front entrance of its new office on Kotla Road, instead of DDU Marg, named after Jana Sangh ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay. The road was earlier known as Rouse Avenue, after Alexander Macdonald Rouse (1878-1966), the superintending engineer during the construction of the new capital. In 1967, Vijay Kumar Malhotra-led Jana Sangh had won the civic elections.
Upadhyay died in February 1968. In 1970, the civic body renamed the road and also installed a statue of his in a park, which now faces the BJP’s headquarters at 6A, DDU Marg. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the BJP's new office on DDU Marg in February 2018.
The four floors of the Congress’ new nerve centre, for which Sonia Gandhi laid the foundation stone on December 28, 2009, the Congress foundation day, will be a “walkthrough” of its history. It will highlight figures such as Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, who presided over the first session of the Congress held at Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1885 to current president Mallikarjun Kharge, the party’s role in the freedom struggle, the achievements of its governments at the Centre and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra.
In 2019, the CPI(M) selected October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, to inaugurate its party school at Kotla Road, acknowledging the Mahatma’s role in the shaping of modern India. The Congress would have ideally liked to inaugurate its national headquarters on its foundation day, but for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s passing away on December 26.
However, the month of January was crucial in some respects for former PM Indira Gandhi, after whom the party has named the building. Indira Gandhi was first sworn in as the country’s PM on January 24, 1966. It was also in January (in 1978), when the Congress found itself at a low after losing the Lok Sabha polls in 1977 and facing a split later, that it had shifted its office to 24, Akbar Road. Two years later, Indira Gandhi made a comeback, and took oath as the country’s prime minister on January 14, 1980. The party is hopeful that the new office will prove to be as auspicious for its fortunes as 24, Akbar Road was for Indira-led Congress.