A witness to history: 47 years of Congress' rise and fall

SAME time, same chill in the air. Delhi is witnessing a 'historic reoccurrence' of sorts on Wednesday; the Congress is moving to its new headquarters - Indira Gandhi Bhawan on Kotla Road.

- PARVEZ SULTAN

Exactly 47 years ago, in January 1978, a devastated Indira Gandhi who was left with only a handful of loyalists following the drubbing after Emergency, shifted the base of the breakaway faction of the Congress to a government accommodation Type VII bungalow on Akbar Road.

In subsequent years, this British-era property saw the rise and fall of the grand old party from resurrection of Congress, Indira wresting power again, death of Sanjay Gandhi, and her killing to Rajiv Gandhi assuming the charge of Prime Minister's Office at very young age, his assassination, and Congress gradually regaining its ground in later years as it led alliance Governments in 1991, 2004 and 2009.

It has also seen the heyday of the Congress when it won 414 Lok Sabha seats in 1984-85 and also its decline when the party was restricted to just 44 seats in the lower house in 2014.

The property has a long history of about 100 years. Before the independence, member of Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's executive council Sir Reginald Maxwell had stayed here.