Congress Bhawan vacated following court orders

The Congress Bhawan, where prominent personalities, including Dr BR Ambedkar, Indira Gandhi, Beant Singh, Joginder Pandey and Sat Pal Mittal, attended meetings since 1967, got vacated on Wednesday following the court orders. Much to the embarrassment of local Congress leadership, the entire incident became the talk of the town after the development.

The Congress Bhawan came into existence way back in 1967 and it was a rented accommodation. The building belonged to a local family, which had a Cinema Hall there.

One of the Congress leaders said none of the party leaders took the issue seriously as the case was in a court for over two decades. The bhawan was a prestige for all Congress leaders as prominent names in the party visited the office frequently.

“The landlord had sold the property to someone as its rent was meagre and the former knew that it would not be easy to get back the possession of the property from Congress leaders. The person to whom the building was sold for a few lakhs pursued the case in the court. Several meetings were held with Congress leaders on the matter as the building was located in the heart of the city. The estimated cost of the property, if evaluated, would not be less than Rs 50 crore. But none paid heed to arrange for any prominent lawyers to fight the case as the building was with the Congress for over five decades. And on Wednesday, the party which won the case in court, accompanied with the bailiff, took out belongings of the Congress from the bhawan and put a lock on the door. It has been an embarrassing situation for the party,” the leader said.

ADCP-I Samir Verma, however, said the city police had nothing to to do in the matter as the action was taken as per court orders and a bailiff, accompanied with labourers, came to get it vacated and put a lock on the door.

“The Congress leaders approached us. They thought we were aware about the matter, but we got to know about it after party leaders told us about the entire incident,” he said.

Amarjit Singh Tikka, former Congress leader, who was now with the BJP, said it was unfortunate that nobody took the matter seriously and the prestigious Congress Bhawan was not with party anymore. “The party leaders claim to fight for the cause of farmers over the land pooling scheme. How would they justify when they themselves could not save their premises,” he said.

Sanjay Talwar, president, DCC, here, said they were not even aware of any court case. “We would have arranged for a lawyer but we never came to know about the same as none got any summons by the court,” said Talwar.

Meanwhile, Pritpal Singh Baliawal, spokesperson, Punjab BJP, tweeted that it was shocking and shameful that the Congress’ office in Ludhiana had been vacated with utensils and furniture thrown out and locks put up — all under the watch of Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, who is not only the Ludhiana MP but also the president of the state Congress.

“If the Congress president cannot even safeguard his own party’s office, how could he claim to protect lands and rights of people, he asked.

Ludhiana