Delhi Chief Minister Atishi has been evicted from her official residence two days after she moved there, the Aam Aadmi Party claimed today. Indicating the start of a new face-off between the AAP and Centre, the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office claimed Lt Governor Vinai Saxena “forcibly removed” Atishi’s belongings from the official home “at the behest of the BJP”.

The office of the Lt Governor is yet to react to the allegations of the Delhi Chief Minister’s Office.

“For the first time in the history of the country, the Chief Minister’s residence was vacated. At the behest of the BJP, the Lt Governor forcibly removed Chief Minister Atishi’s belongings from the Chief Minister residence,” the Chief Minister Office or CMO alleged.

Visuals showed several cartons and luggage being taken out of the official residence. 

A double lock has been put on the residence, sources said, adding proper paperwork was not submitted to the Public Works Department (PWD) regarding the handover of the keys.  

The bungalow has sparked yet another clash between the AAP and the BJP with both parties coming out with alleged documents to support their case.

Atishi shifted to bungalow number 6 on Flagstaff Road in north Delhi’s Civil Lines on Monday, days after her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal – who occupied the home for more than nine years – vacated it.

Hours later, the BJP claimed that the bungalow was yet to be handed over to the PWD for fresh allocation.

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta, sharing a purported PWD letter dated October 6,  alleged that Mr Kejriwal “did not vacate his bungalow” and that most of his belongings are still there. 

The letter, addressed to the special secretary of the Chief Minister’s Office, said,  “It is brought to your attention that the keys of the house at 6, Flag Staff Road handed over to PWD were taken back after some time and are yet to be handed over to PWD to complete the process of handing over”.

The AAP, meanwhile, has accused the BJP of trying to “usurp” the Bungalow. AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh alleged that the bungalow was “yet to be allotted”, claiming the BJP was spreading “lies” on the issue despite documentary proof of Mr Kejriwal vacating the bungalow.

The BJP also accused the Chief Minister of “illegally” occupying the official residence as she was “already allotted AB-17 bungalow on Mathura Road”.

Atishi was allotted the AB-17 residence last year after she was appointed a minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government.

AAP national convenor Kejriwal resigned as chief minister in September and vacated the Flagstaff Road bungalow in Civil Lines last Friday.

His new address is 5, Ferozeshah Road near Mandi House, which was allotted to AAP Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Ashok Mittal.

The Election Commission on Wednesday dubbed the ‘Haryana results unacceptable’ statement of senior Congress leaders as “unheard in the rich democratic heritage” of the country and far from a legitimate part of free speech.

In a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Election Commission or EC said such remarks by party leaders Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera move towards “an undemocratic rejection of the will of the people” expressed in accordance with the statutory and regulatory electoral framework.

The Commission said it has also noted the statements of Mr Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, terming the Haryana results as “unexpected” and that the party proposes to analyse the same and approach the EC with its complaints.

The EC said it has received a request seeking a meeting time for a 12-member official INC delegation, including those who made the “results unacceptable” statement.

“Proceeding on a fair assumption that the statement of the party president is the formal party position on the electoral outcome, the ECI has agreed to meet the delegation today at 6 PM …,” the letter to Mr Kharge said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The Congress, notwithstanding its improved performance in the Lok Sabha election, is back to square one after its dismal show in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir — at the receiving end of harsh criticism from allies. Less than 24 hours after the declaration of results, INDIA bloc allies including Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress and others have issued sharp takedowns. Even the normally reticent Rashtriya Janata Dal and Kashmir ally Omar Abdullah, could not resist a few digs.

Most of these were focused on what they allege is the Congress’s lack of respect for allies, especially the smaller, regional ones, pointing out that reach, more than size, is crucial during election.  

The “arrogance” tag from allies have hung onto Congress for over a decade. Now more than the Central leaders, it is the state leaders who are being blamed after a series of episodes when smaller parties had been rebuffed. 

Cases in point were Kamal Nath’s refusal to allot seats to Samajwadi Party during the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last year, Delhi and Punjab Congress leaders’ perpetual reluctance to share seats with AAP. To this has been added the name of Bhupinder Hooda, whose team had refused to share space with AAP in Haryana. In each case, the state leaders have overridden the advice from Central leaders. 

The Congress’s Central leadership is being blamed for allowing too much leeway to state leaders, who at every instance have ignored messages from Delhi. The Congress high command is also being blamed for failing to rein in factionalism, which has caused hiccups in states including Karnataka ahead of government formation. Or as in the case of Haryana, crashed the campaign.  

The sharpest and most critical of jabs came from Uddhav Thackeray’s faction of Shiv Sena, Congress’s Maharashtra ally. Its timing is critical — ahead of the elections in the western state and amid a tussle over seat sharing. the Congress, after its hugely improved performance in the state in the Lok Sabha election, has been reluctant to hand over six seats in Nagpur, considered its stronghold. 

An editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamna criticised the Congress for failing to accommodate alliance partners like the AAP or control the “disobedience of local leaders”. It even pointed out similar circumstances in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh last year, indicating that a flexible attitude could have changed the outcome of the elections. 

A similar criticism came from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which had refused to allot Congress more than two seats ahead of the Lok Sabha election following which talks for state-level alliance broke down, even though the INDIA bloc remained intact. 

“This attitude leads to electoral losses – ‘if we feel we’re winning, we will not accommodate a regional party but, in states where we’re down, regional parties must accommodate us,” said Trinamool’s Saket Gokhale.

“The Congress needs to introspect, focus on accommodative politics… Alliance principles should be respected… Big parties should respect regional parties,” said RJD national spokesperson Professor Subodh Mehta.

The Samajwadi Party, reluctant to share seats with Congress since the 2017 assembly polls rout, has thumbs downed on a fresh request for by-polls to 10 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats later this year.

National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, in an interview with NDTV, spoke of the Congress being doubly unhappy after being “trolled” by allies.

The Congress has not accepted the results in Haryana, and insisted on a meeting with the Election Commission. Today, Rahul Gandhi, in a post on X, said, “We are analysing the unexpected results of Haryana. We will inform the Election Commission about the complaints coming from many assembly constituencies”.