Real estate in Lutyens' Delhi zone has the latest reason for rattle between the Congress and its biggest ally of the second UPA -- the Trinamool Congress.
According to top Trinamool sources, mercurial Mamata Banerjee is again angry with the Congress -- even before the previous contentious issues could subside -- over non-allocation of a preferred bunglow for her party office in the capital. Banerjee had zeroed in on bungalow number 14 on Bishamber Dass Marg as the ideal place to house her party office in Delhi.
But the House Committee, headed by Congressman J P Aggarwal, ruled out Banerjee's appeal and allotted the bungalow to a BJP MP.
The preferred plot has a type VII bungalow -- second largest bungalow type in Lutyen's Delhi.
"I don't have any vacant bungalow now which can be given to any Trinamool Congress MP to set up their party office. The bungalow in question has already been allotted to a senior Lok Sabha MP even before Trinamool Congress leadership sent its request. There was no question of cancelling the previous allocation and giving it to anyone else," J P Aggarwal reportedly said to close aides.
Currently, the renovation of the bungalow is underway and the tenant is expected to occupy the bungalow soon.
Banerjee, according to her aides, has vowed not to take any other bungalow for her party office.
"It has to be either bungalow number 14 on B D Marg or nothing else," she has said.
Banerjee had sought this bungalow because it's on the other side of her Delhi residence at MS Building.
"Long before it was allotted to anyone else, our party had informed the House Committee of Parliament that we would like to have it," Trinamool Congress MP and Minister of State in Urban Development Sougata Roy told Business Standard.
What has irked Banerjee further is that she didn't take any big bungalows for her own accommodation even when she was entitled to have a Type VIII bungalow -- the biggest ones -- as a Cabinet minister and a seven-term MP.
"She doesn't use a government car, lives in the same flat at MS Building ever since she became a MP in 1984 and pays her own food bill in office. When she wanted this bungalow for the party, she didn't get it," said a close aide.
