After almost five decades, Congress to bid adieu to 24, Akbar Road, move into a new home

Come January 15, the Congress national headquarters will have a new name and a new address: Indira Gandhi Bhawan on 9 A, Kotla Road. In the making for one-and-a-half decades, the new headquarters of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) is ready and will be inaugurated a day after Makar Sankranti. Though the land allotted for the building is on Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, the party decided to keep the entrance to its six-storey headquarters on Kotla Road to have it on the address instead of DDU Marg.

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi as Congress president way back in December 2009. But it took the party 15 years to complete the construction of the building. Gandhi, now the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, will inaugurate the building accompanied by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.

Named the “Indira Gandhi Bhawan”, 400 top leaders of the party from across India are expected to attend the event, including members of the Congress Working Committee, Permanent and Special Invitees, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) presidents, Congress Legislature Party leaders, MPs from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, former Chief Ministers, ex-PCC Presidents, and former CLP Leaders and Union Ministers.

The Congress led by Indira moved into 24, Akbar Road in 1978, a turbulent year in Congress history. Indira had been defeated in the Lok Sabha elections after Emergency, the first time the Congress was out of power since Independence. The Congress had also split and the Indira group did not have an office. It was then that MP Gaddam Venkatswamy offered his official residence — 24, Akbar Road — to the party and the Congress moved in.

It was not the first time that the Congress under Indira had found itself out of a home. She had lost control of the party office nearly a decade earlier too. After the 1969 split, the Indira faction did not have access to 7, Jantar Mantar Road, the Congress headquarters since Independence.

“It is time for us to move ahead with the times and embrace the new,” AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal said on Tuesday, announcing the inauguration of the new headquarters.

 “Situated at 9 A, Kotla Road, New Delhi, the Indira Gandhi Bhawan is designed to meet the evolving needs of the party and its leaders, featuring modern facilities to support administrative, organisational, and strategic activities. This iconic building reflects the Congress party’s forward-looking vision while paying homage to its extraordinary past, which has shaped the political and social fabric of India,” he said.

A senior Congress leader said the party would not give up the Akbar Road bungalow and that “it will be kept for high-profile meetings”. Offices of all party leaders and office-bearers, including that of the party president, will shift to the new building.

“It will be done in a phased manner and may take a couple of months but we will all shift to the new headquarters. The offices of general secretaries and other office-bearers will shift to the new building,” said the Congress functionary.

“Like the BJP, which has not given up its office in Lutyens’ Delhi on 11, Ashoka Road, we will also retain the one on Akbar Road and use it for high-profile meetings. But it will be shut down for visits by party workers, and leaders, except in special cases when a meeting is scheduled,” the leader added.