New Delhi : Ten major political parties have opted to retain their parliamentary offices in Samvidhan Sadan even as the Telugu Desam Party will shift to a new address in the new Parliament House.
Ten major political parties have opted to retain their parliamentary offices in Samvidhan Sadan — the old Parliament building — even as the Telugu Desam Party will shift to a new address in the new Parliament House.
Even as the new Parliament building has been built less than a year ago and has all modern facilities, an Opposition MP indicated that the existing offices are “more convenient” and many leaders “don’t want to quit the office rooms associated with the party for a long time”.
An office memorandum issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s estate and heritage management branch listed the 10 parties opting for Samvidhan Sadan as Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal (United), YSR Congress Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Shiv Sena (UBT), Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Biju Janata Dal and the Shiv Sena (Shinde).
The allotments, as the memorandum suggests, will be valid for the 18th Lok Sabha and it has been done under the directions of Speaker Om Birla. HT has a copy of the memorandum.
Under the latest arrangement, Samajwadi Party has been allotted three office rooms—130 and 126-18&ll—on the third floor of the Samvidhan Sadan. The SP is the fourth-largest party in Parliament with 41 MPs and got a bigger space.
Similarly, JDU, which has 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will have Rooms 135 and 136 in Samvidhan Sadan’s third floor, close to the SP office.
TDP, the BJP’s ally at the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh, has been allotted a room on the first floor of the new building. The AAP and the BJD have ground floor rooms in the old building. The other parties mentioned in the circular have retained their offices on the third floor—which accommodates most of the party offices in the old building.
To be sure, the list doesn’t mention the BJP, Congress and the Trinamool Congress’ offices. According to an official in the Lok Sabha, “These parties are not shifting to the new building and will retain their old offices.”
