In line with the BJP, the Punjab authorities’s bungalow No. 50 in Chandigarh’s Sector 2 is the brand new ‘Sheesh Mahal’ of Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) nationwide convener Arvind Kejriwal. This provides one other layer of lore to the two-acre mansion, only a stone’s throw from the Punjab Chief Minister’s official residence. The mansion has lengthy served as extra than simply an handle within the state, and has usually been on the middle of political ups and downs.
Opposition events declare that Mr Kejriwal, who has been a frequent customer to Punjab since shedding the Delhi chief minister’s put up to the Bharatiya Janata Get together, has transformed the bungalow right into a “palace-like” base for his visits to Chandigarh. AAP denies the allegations.
Bungalow No. 50 has been constructed by totally different governments for various functions over time. It was supposed to deal with the previous Haryana CM throughout the militancy interval with high police officers, in addition to briefly home key political negotiators and distinguished state leaders. Below the Bhagwant Singh Mann-led AAP authorities, it has been designated because the ‘CM’s camp workplace and visitor home’.
One of many causes for that is the placement of Bungalow No. 50, the Chandigarh space is residence to facilities of energy that embody the residence of the Punjab and Haryana CM, the CM’s officers, the Punjab Civil Secretariat and the Punjab and Haryana Excessive Court docket.
Kejriwal himself has stayed in Bungalow No. 5 for the previous three days of October. Throughout his go to in September, Mr. Kejriwal additionally stayed for a number of days on the authorities guesthouse, Vikas Bhawan, in an upscale space of Mohali.
Earlier than Kejriwal, Bungalow No. 50 was occupied by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha. Chadha, the get together’s former Punjab in-charge, used the residence as a base and sources mentioned he had arrange an elaborate workplace on the premises. Coincidentally, Chadha’s appointment as an ‘advisor’ to the Punjab authorities got here amid controversy over his alleged ‘absence’ from the state.
The bungalow was whitewashed and cleaned after Chadha vacated it in September, and Kejriwal stayed there throughout his post-Diwali go to on October 22. The lengthy assembly with the industrial man there was the spotlight of the journey.
Sources mentioned one of many causes for in search of lodging for Kejriwal in Chandigarh was as a result of he was staying at Vikas Bhawan, a Rural Improvement Division visitor home, inflicting inconvenience to different visitors, lots of whom have been staying there whereas on the town to go to the hospital. In truth, the visitor home was successfully closed to the general public after Kejriwal’s keep there was revealed in June 2025.
In response to a query by the Bharatiya Janata Get together management in regards to the “allocation” of manicured mansions to “non-resident” leaders, Mann mentioned Bungalow No. 50 can be a camp workplace and that Kejriwal was utilizing the house purely as a visitor. Mann additionally questioned its use below Amarinder Singh as Congress CM.
Whereas Amarinder stayed in bungalow quantity 44 throughout his tenure, the CM’s residential pool on the time included numbers 8 and 43, occupied by his grandson Nirvan Singh (Amarinder’s social media handler) and son Raninder Singh, respectively.
Nevertheless, Bungalow No. 50 was within the information on the time for allegedly present process lavish renovations. Its resident, Legal professional Common Atul Nanda, was accused of spending 1 billion rupees (a few of it out of his personal pocket) on renovations in 2017, together with importing marble from Egypt, renovating the washrooms and repainting sandstone tiles within the courtyard.
Later, AAP opposition chief Sukhpal Khaira obtained particulars of the expenditure by RTI and warned that it was a “splurge” at a time when state funds have been below stress. Kaira, who’s now a member of Congress, instructed The Indian Specific, “I received data below RTI again then. Now they (AAP authorities) are simply refusing to provide any data… They’re splurging on all the things from housing, safety, automobiles to helicopters.”
Forward of the 2021 Punjab Meeting elections, Nanda vacated his home. Deputy CM and Congress chief Sukhjinder Randhawa occupied it for a few yr earlier than the Congress was swept from energy by the AAP.
In line with official paperwork, a few of the renovation work carried out by Nanda was overdue. In the course of the Akali Dal authorities that preceded the Congress, the resident of Bungalow No. 50 was Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, a political stalwart and relative of the Badals. Chiron was utilizing the home to obtain guests from his constituency, but it surely was in poor situation.
“It was extra like a public inn. The place was rundown, the washrooms smelled dangerous and folks have been sleeping on mattresses on the ground,” the supply mentioned. An Akali chief, talking on situation of anonymity, mentioned this was a very long time in the past and he did not know a lot in regards to the mansion. “Chiron used it as a type of visitor home. He by no means stayed in the home.”
Earlier, between 1999 and 2002, when this bungalow was allotted to the then CM Parkash Singh Badal, he gave it to his good friend and former Haryana CM OP Chautala to dwell there for 2 years.
In the course of the Punjabi militant period of the ’80s, Bungalow No. 50 served because the residence and workplace of two of the province’s most distinguished police chiefs, KPS Gil and Julio Ribeiro.
Below the AAP authorities, notification of Bungalow No. 50 because the CM’s camp workplace paved the best way for Chadha to perform from there.
As for Mr Kejriwal, he was again in Punjab this week to marketing campaign for the Tarun Taran meeting seat by-election. Nevertheless, within the wake of the ‘Sheesh Mahal 2.0’ controversy, the AAP supremo has distanced himself from Bungalow No. 50 and Chandigarh.
