New Delhi: After the Election Commission (EC) of India derecognised All India Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) as national parties Monday, the spotlight is now on the fate of prime land and bungalows in Lutyens’ Delhi allotted to the three parties for running their offices.
Senior officials in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which owns the land, told ThePrint that while the CPI will get to keep Ajoy Bhavan — its central office built on a 0.3-acre plot on Kotla Marg allotted to the party in 1967 — it will have to vacate a Type VII bungalow at Purana Qila Road allotted to party leader D. Raja in his capacity as CPI general secretary.
Likewise, Sharad Pawar’s NCP will also have to vacate the 1 Canning Road bungalow allotted to it for running its party office, the officials added.
However, suspense continues over the 1,008 square-metre (approx. 0.25 acres) land allotted to the Trinamool Congress at central Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg in December 2013.
The Directorate of Estates, which comes under the housing and urban affairs ministry and deals with allotment of government land and bungalows to national political parties, has not yet sent any notice to the CPI and the NCP to vacate the bungalows, senior officials confirmed to ThePrint.
Why CPI gets to keep Ajoy Bhavan but will have to vacate bungalow
Speaking about Ajoy Bhavan, senior ministry officials said that although land is allotted to a national party at a concessional rate, once the party makes the payment, takes possession and builds its office, the land remains with it regardless of whether it continues to be a national party or not.
“It’s a freehold land, and the party, in this case, the CPI, has bought it from the government,” an official told ThePrint.
According to the law, a party has to construct its office within three years of allotment, ministry officials said.
But in the case of bungalows, the rule mandates that if a party is derecognised as a national party it will have to vacate it, officials said. “A bungalow is temporary allocation until land is identified for permanent allotment to a recognised national party,” a second official told ThePrint.
This is the reason the CPI and the NCP will have to vacate the bungalows allotted to them.
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Suspense over land allotted to Trinamool Congress
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) was allotted a 1,008 square-metre land at central Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg for building its office in December 2013. But the party has yet to take possession of it and has cited several encroachments — including two temples.
While the TMC wants the housing ministry, which owns the land, to clear the encroachments, the ministry maintains the land was allotted to the party on an “as is where is (take it as it is)” basis and the onus is on the allottee — that is, the Trinamool Congress — to do so.
Senior housing ministry officials told ThePrint that the TMC can keep the land after taking possession and paying concessional land rate. But the party calls it a “bogus allotment”.
TMC Lok Sabha Member of Parliament Saugata Roy told ThePrint: “It’s an encroached land, a bogus allotment. We have not taken possession of the land. So the question of keeping it does not arise.”
What are the parties saying
All three parties have responded to losing their national party tag. Roy told ThePrint that the TMC had yet to decide its course of action but was open to all options, including legal recourse.
The NCP, however, said it would abide by the law. NCP Rajya Sabha MP Vandana Chavan told ThePrint: “If there is a rule for being a national party and we are falling short, we will accept the ECI’s decision. But at the same time we will strive to make the cut to be recognised as a national party again.”
The CPI said in a statement that it had the capacity and commitment to face such challenges and overcome them. D. Raja, the party’s general secretary, said in the statement Tuesday: “Despite the Election Commission withdrawing the national party recognition, the CPI will continue to work among the people with increased vigour and dedication across the country.”
At the same time, he added, “the CPI will intensify its campaign for comprehensive electoral reforms including the system of proportional representation, abolition of electoral bonds and for state funding of elections as recommended by the Indrajit Gupta Committee to ensure level playing field to all participants”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)