Congress loses office in Gorakhpur, looks for temporary place

40-YEAR-LONG LEGAL BATTLE

THE CONGRESS is busy hunting for a temporary accommodation in Gorakhpur after losing its office in the district after a 40-yearlong legal battle. The office was vacated on April 4 based on orders passed by a district court last year.

The court had ruled in favour of property’s owner Shobhit Agrawal, whose grandfather, Laxman Das, had given about 1,000 square feet area to the Congress district unit nearly 50 years ago.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Shobhit Agarwal said: “Last year, the lower court ordered them to vacate the premises, which is about 100 square metres of area. They went to the High Court, but their appeal was not accepted and thus in a normal course the possession has come to me...”

Congress district president Syed Jamal Ahmed said that the party was now hunting for a temporary accommodation.

“It is a sad situation. On April 4, suddenly with the help of police force the possession was given to Shobhit Agarwal, who is grandson of the person who gave us this place on a rent about 50 years ago and is a builder by profession. After I took charge, the rent was Rs 20 per month,” said Ahmed.

For the past three weeks now, Congress has been operating without any office in Gorakhpur. State Congress chief Raj Babbar said that the party has moved Supreme Court after an appeal against the district court order was not accepted in the High Court.

“Our office has been there for so many years. Mr Tankha (Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha) would look into the entire situation. I do not know much, but he would look into the entire case... if there has been any mischief and to know why it happened. At the same time, we have moved an application in the Supreme Court as our appeal in the High Court was not accepted,” he said.

Congress counsel in the district court, Yadunath Tripathi, who has been handling the case since 2003, said, “It is a 40-yearold tenant versus landlord case and began in 1977, a decade after the office was given to the party on rent by grandfather of the present landlord. In between, party defaulted on the rent, which weakened the case and we lost it in civil as well as district court.”

Party sources revealed that the entire case file has been sent to the Uttar Pradesh Congress Headquarters in Lucknow on Thursday on the directions of senior party leadership. The office was located in the prime Purdilpur area on Cinema Road in Gorakhpur city. Tankha, who is travelling with the Vice President of India, would be back on April 29 to begin his internal probe into the matter.

Express The building that housed Congress office.