Atishi ‘evicted’ from CM house, AAP blames Lieutenant Governor

In a fresh face-off with Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday, Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party and CMO accused Raj Niwas of “acting at BJP’s behest to forcibly evict CM Atishi” from 6, Flagstaff Road in north Delhi’s Civil Lines, where she had moved two days ago.

Videos of cartons being moved out of the house, which former CM Arvind Kejriwal occupied for over nine years before vacating it recently, went viral. The L-G office rejected the claims of the CMO that he was planning to allocate Atishi’s residence to a senior BJP leader. “This is the first time in the nation’s history that a sitting Chief Minister has been forced to vacate their official residence…After 27 years of being out of power in Delhi, the BJP is now attempting to seize the CM’s residence,” the CMO said.

Sources from the L-G House rejected the accusations, saying the said bungalow was not the official CM residence. “Like all other official residences of Chief Ministers, the property belongs to the Public Works Department (PWD). As per protocol, PWD takes possession of any vacant residence, inventories its contents, and then reassigns it following proper procedure,” sources said.

Earlier, the BJP said Atishi had not handed over keys of the residence to PWD for reallocation as per procedure. Delhi LoP Vijender Gupta shared a purported PWD letter dated October 6 which stated that Kejriwal had not vacated 6 Flagstaff Road residence and his belongings were still there.

This letter, addressed to the CMO, said the keys of the house were given to the PWD but taken back after some time and were yet to be returned for completion of hand-over formalities. An L-G office source also said Kejriwal had not officially handed over possession of the house to the PWD after he vacated it, raising suspicions about what might have been concealed during the process.

The CM residence has remained mired in controversy over huge expenses on its renovations. The BJP calls this house a ‘Sheesh Mahal’ and the issue is under CBI investigation.