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On the auspicious occasion of Makar Sankranti, January 15, Sonia Gandhi, in her capacity as chairperson of the Congress Party in Parliament (CPP), will inaugurate Indira Bhavan, the new headquarters of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). The event was originally planned for the party's Foundation Day, December 28, but the death of Dr Manmohan Singh and the subsequent national mourning delayed the proceedings.
The two-acre plot where the new office is located is bounded by Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg and Kotla Marg. To avoid having the name of the Jan Sangh stalwart and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) icon, Upadhyay, the Congress in its address has chosen to position the front gate on Kotla Marg, which is essentially the rear of the plot. As a result, 9A Kotla Marg will become the new address of the Congress.
Originally known as Rouse Avenue (named after Sir Alexander Macdonald Rouse, the superintending engineer who oversaw the New Delhi project a century ago), the road was renamed in 1970 after the founding General Secretary of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, who built the party between 1953 and 1968. The Jan Sangh had won the 1967 local elections in Delhi, and the regime led by Vijay Kumar Malhotra renamed the road and placed a statue of Upadhyay in a park that now faces the swank headquarters of the BJP at 6A, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg.
A Back-Door Entrance
This is the second time the Congress has opted for a back-door entrance. Jawahar Bhavan, located on Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road and housing the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, is on a plot whose original address was 3 Raisina Road. It was initially built as the AICC office but was handed over to the Foundation after Rajiv Gandhi's tragic assassination in 1991. The plot was opposite 6 Raisina Road, which was then occupied by Opposition stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Thus, the Congress leadership chose the back-door entrance for the premises.
Political parties and institutions are allocated plots for their offices in the Rouse Avenue area. The Gandhi Peace Foundation, where Jayaprakash Narayan decided that Morarji Desai would be the Janata Prime Minister in 1977, is located on this road. Other offices here include those of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Rouse Avenue is also the site of special courts where cases involving VVIPs, filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), are adjudicated.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) set up its headquarters, Ajoy Bhavan, at 15 Kotla Marg in 1972. Named after Ajoy Ghose, general secretary of the undivided CPI, the office faces the site of the original Central Jail of Delhi, which was relocated to Tihar in 1957. An adjacent bungalow was used in the 1950s to incarcerate Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah of Jammu & Kashmir. The CPI was India's principal opposition party until 1967, but its prominence faded in the seventies as it moved to Kotla Marg. Today, CPI has two MPs each in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The Beginning With Anand Bhavan
The history of the Indian National Congress headquarters, which will celebrate its 140th anniversary in December 2025, begins in 1930, when Motilal Nehru built Anand Bhavan in Allahabad (now Prayagraj). His previous home, adjacent to Anand Bhavan and later renamed Swaraj Bhavan, was dedicated to the nation and became the office of the AICC.
In 1931, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at Swaraj Bhavan included four members from the Nehru family: Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kamla Nehru, and Motilal's son-in-law, Ranjit Sitaram Pandit (husband of Vijay Laxmi Pandit, Jawaharlal's sister). As the party moves into Indira Bhavan in 2025, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will be part of the CWC.
The AICC office moved to New Delhi in 1947, just before Independence. The CWC deliberated on the Partition Plan at its new office, 7 Jantar Mantar Road, on June 15, 1947. This office was extensively used by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for party work. In 1959, when Indira Gandhi became Congress President, 7 Jantar Mantar Road became her office.
History Of Shifting Addresses
When the Congress split in 1969, with Indira Gandhi's supporters requisitioning a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the official party, led by S. Nijalingappa and referred to as Congress (Organisation), retained control over 7 Jantar Mantar Road. In 1977, the merger of the Congress (O) into the Janata Party led to the Janata Party headquarters being located at these premises. After a series of splits in the Janata movement, the current occupants of the office include the Janata Dal (United) (JD-U), along with commercial entities such as Rentokil Pest Control and Antim Yatra Funeral Service. Ownership of 7 Jantar Mantar Road, as per a notification in 1993, now lies with the Central Government.
After the 1969 split, the Indira Gandhi faction of the Congress held its session at Mavlankar Hall, with Jagjivan Ram presiding. In 1971, the Election Commission recognised the party, which swept the polls, as Congress (Jagjivan). Two bungalows on nearby Raisina Road—3 and 5—were used for ancillary events during the 1969 session. These two bungalows later became part of the AICC setup, although the party headquarters remained at 21 Windsor Place.
The AICC subsequently moved to 5 Rajendra Prasad Road, which had been occupied by Morarji Desai as Deputy Prime Minister until 1969, when he quit the Indira government after the split. 5 Rajendra Prasad Road saw both the triumph of the 1971 poll victory and the dark days of the Emergency. Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma and D.K. Barooah presided over the party during this time.
The 1978 Split
The Congress faced yet another split in January 1978, and the party led by Indira Gandhi moved to its current premises at 24 Akbar Road, adjacent to 10 Janpath. Now the residence of Sonia Gandhi, this bungalow had previously served as the office of the Indian Youth Congress during the tenure of Ambika Soni as president, with Sanjay Gandhi as its most powerful National Council member.
The history of the 1978 split is fascinating. When Chief Election Commissioner S.L. Shakhder adjudicated the split, he recognised the faction led by Indira Gandhi as the “real Congress”, entitled to function under the name and style of the Indian National Congress. Shakhder noted that the other faction had seen many exits and entries. For instance, K. Brahmananda Reddy, who had been elected Congress President in May 1977 and headed the party against which Indira Gandhi revolted in 1978, later joined Congress (I). Devraj Urs, one of Indira Gandhi's lieutenants in 1978, was heading the opposing faction at the time of the adjudication. V.M. Syed Mohammed, the lawyer who initially represented the ‘other Congress' in the case, had crossed over to Indira's party and had been appointed High Commissioner in London.
Shakhder forbade the ‘other Congress' from styling itself as the Indian National Congress and assigned it the name Indian Congress (Socialist). Later, Sharad Pawar headed that party, which merged with the main Congress party in December 1985 at a rally in Nagpur. This merger resulted in 3 Raisina Road, which had been the headquarters of Congress (S), being handed over to the parent party.
Jawahar Bhavan, located on the plot of the original 3 Raisina Road, housed extension offices of the AICC until May 1991. Among its occupants was Pranab Mukherjee, who headed the party's communications and other departments during the 1991 elections. Jitendra Prasada, political secretary to the then Congress President Rajiv Gandhi, also used the premises.
At last, the AICC will have its own premises in New Delhi. The foundation stone of Indira Bhavan was laid by Sonia Gandhi, as Congress President, on the party's 125th anniversary in December 2009. The project took 15 years to come to fruition. Work on the nearby BJP national headquarters at 6A Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg began in August 2016, was completed in 18 months, and the inauguration was held in February 2018.
(Shubhabrata Bhattacharya is a retired editor and a public affairs commentator)