The Directorate of Estates, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has allotted a new office to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) following the orders of the Delhi High Court. Bungalow No. 1 on Ravi Shankar Shukla Lane will be the new office of the AAP in Delhi. The headquarters of the AAP is currently located at 206, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, in the Capital. It was not immediately clear when would the AAP shift its headquarters to the new location, which is also centrally located at walking distance from the Mandi House roundabout.
AAP's new office was earlier occupied by the Nationalist Congress Party, which vacated it after losing its national party status. Interestingly, this will be the fifth address of the AAP's headquarters. In the initial days of its inception, the party was operating from Ghaziabad and later moved to a bungalow near Hanuman Mandir.
From that office, the party shifted its base to Patel Nagar and then to 206, Rouse Avenue.
Delhi cabinet minister Atishi said, "It has been few hours since we have been allotted the office. We will take the keys from the Directorate of Estates and inspect the space and then talk about it."
The Delhi high court on June 5 held that the AAP was entitled to space for a party office in the national capital like other parties. It asked the Union government to decide on the matter within six weeks. The direction came on an AAP plea. Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra appearing for AAP had told the high court that a national party is entitled to a temporary office until the land is allotted to it for construction of a permanent office.
In April 2023, the AAP got the status of a national party. The AAP has formed full-majority governments in Delhi and Punjab and won five assembly seats in Gujarat and two in Goa. It has 10 Rajya Sabha and three Lok Sabha members. The Chandigarh mayor is from the AAP.
The AAP had told the top court the said plot had been allotted to it in 2015, and it was earmarked for the judiciary only subsequently in 2020. The AAP also said that since it has a national party status now, it was entitled to a plot in Central Delhi at par with other national parties.
In March, the Supreme Court first granted the A time till June 15 to vacate its Rouse Avenue office after noting that the land was allotted to the Delhi High Court for expanding judicial infrastructure.
