Congress may relocate 15, GRG Road war room in poll season

Over the past years, the 15, GRG Road bungalow had been allotted to various Congress MPs, who allowed the house to be used as the party’s war room. Now the grand old party may relocate the war room, reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri

New Delhi: The Congress is hotly debating the new location of its war room as the one operating from 15, Gurudwara Rakabganj Road, New Delhi for the past 18 years has to be vacated this month. Over the past years, the 15, GRG Road bungalow had been allotted to various Congress MPs, who allowed the house to be used as the party’s war room. All these years, the house witnessed several key Congress meetings, strategy sessions and management of national and state elections but that is set to change.

The bungalow was last allotted to party Rajya Sabha member Pradeep Bhattacharya, whose term ended in August. “I had written three letters over the past months to the Rajya Sabha secretariat seeking an extension for the 15, GRG Road bungalow but there has been no response. We don’t know what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government will do. If I don’t get an extension, we will have to vacate the premises this month,” Bhattacharya told ETV Bharat.

According to Congress insiders, the issue is being hotly debated within the party circles as the 15, GRG Road address had become synonymous with strategy making. “I have attended so many strategy meetings there,” recalled Bhattacharya, a former West Bengal unit chief.

“During the UPA government, 15, GRG Road, was such an important address in the party system. All our top leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi used to come there for key meetings. I have also attended several meetings there. Sonia Gandhi's close aide Ahmed Patel used to manage the war room,” former MP JP Agarwal told ETV Bharat.

As per the rules, the Rajya Sabha housing committee allocates the bungalows to the MPs and has the authority to get it vacated after the term of the member has expired. However, in some cases the housing committee may allow the member to occupy the premises for an additional period but charges rent at market rates, which would work out to be in lakhs per month currently. The housing committee may also allot the premises to another member, if it so wishes, said party insiders.

“If the government wanted to give an extension to Pradeep Bhattacharya they would have responded to his letters. They can do that even now but we don’t know how things will pan out,” said a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) functionary.

According to party insiders, in the given situation when the party will face five Assembly polls in November and is also preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, either the war room will have to be shifted to the party’s national headquarters at 24, Akbar Road or to some other suitable location or to the new Congress office building at Rouse Avenue.

“The new office building at Rouse Avenue is ready and we may shift the war room and a few other departments there in a month or two,” a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member said.

The new office building has been ready for a while but it is for the high command to take a final call on when to relocate the AICC headquarters at 24, Akbar Road, to the Rouse Avenue address.