Congress party moves to a new office after 47 years

The Congress will move its central office to 9A Kotla Road in New Delhi on Wednesday, having spent 47 years at 24 Akbar Road—an address that had become synonymous with the 139-year-old party and witnessed a significant part of its recent history.

- Saubhadra Chatterji

NEW DELHI:

Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi will inaugurate the five-storey headquarters on Wednesday, scripting a new chapter of the party that will shift out of Lutyens’ Delhi, weeks before the national capital goes to the assembly polls on February 5.

Congress functionaries said that the Akbar Road’s open and welcoming environment with little restriction for the media and party workers will be severely curtailed in the new office.

According to two Congress leaders, the 9A Kotla Marg property over a two-acre plot will allow the media access only up to the ground floor—something its rival the BJP has implemented at its headquarters, which is a short distance away from the new Congress office.