Atal Behari Vajpayee bungalow is allocated to Amit Shah

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Home Minister Amit Shah’s first act on Thursday as chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation was to allot himself the bungalow at 6A Krishna Menon Marg that was occupied by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee until his death.

New Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah’s first act on Thursday as chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Accommodation was to allot himself the bungalow at 6A Krishna Menon Marg that was occupied by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee until his death. It is a six-bedroom bungalow with state-of-the-art security gadgets installed on the premises as Vajpayee enjoyed the top-tier SPG security provided to the Prime Minister, former PMs and their families.

As BJP President, he was allotted bungalow No 11 on Akbar Road. The change of address will make him a resident of a VVIP enclave that has the residences of the Chief Justice of India, many Supreme Court judges and the Director General of the Military Intelligence; at the end of the road is the residence of BJP ideologue and former finance minister Arun Jaitley. The bungalow where Shah is moving is actually No 8 but Vajpayee as the careta-ker PM had ordered it to be renumbered as 6A since he believed No 8 was jinxed. The DMK’s late Murasoli Maran was the earlier occupant of the house which had remained vacant after his death in November 2003. Vajpayee moved in only after it was renumbered.

The CPWD officials said they would ask Shah whether the bungalow can be re-numbered as No 8 since No 6A looks like an annexe of bungalow No 6 which houses the Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial. The late leader’s daughter Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, has refused to vacate the bungalow despite several notices. It was the sixth day in office for Shah, who has been going to his ministry in the North Block every day and even on Wednesday when all government offices were closed for Eid festival and held a series of meetings with the officials.