E-Paper
A day after his LS membership was restored, Rahul given his old bungalow back
An official of the House Committee of the Lok Sabha confirmed to HT that a letter has been issued to Gandhi
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been reallotted the government bungalow he used to occupy, at 12, Tughlaq Lane, a day after being reinstated as a Lok Sabha member following the stay on his conviction in a 2019 defamation case , people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
An official of the House Committee of the Lok Sabha confirmed to HT that a letter has been issued to Gandhi allocating him the same bungalow in which he had stayed since becoming a parliamentarian for the first time in 2004.
“The entire country is my home,” the former Congress president told reporters when asked about the allotment.
Gandhi vacated the bungalow in April , after he was asked to do so, following his disqualification as member of the Lok Sabha on March 24 following his conviction and a two-year jail term awarded to him. While leaving his bungalow, Gandhi said he was paying the “price for speaking the truth”.
The House Committee issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi on March 25, a day after his disqualification as the Wayanad MP. A disqualified parliamentarian is not entitled to a government accommodation and gets a month’s time to vacate the official residence.
The Congress, however, had pointed out that the committee is usually not as prompt in sending such notices and cited some examples, including that of former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who retired from the Rajya Sabha in 2022, but continued to retain his official bungalow.
The reallotment has come as promptly, though.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday said that Gandhi would visit Wayanad in Kerala on August 12-13, his first trip to his constituency after being reinstated as an MP.
“ The people of Wayanad are elated that democracy has won, their voice has returned to Parliament! Rahul ji is not just an MP but a member of their family!” Venugopal tweeted.
