A house for Mr Badal: Five-time former CM goes house-hunting in Chandigarh

For the first time in decades, Punjab’s outgoing chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has been forced to look for a house on rent in the capital of the state of which he has been chief minister for five times. Sources say that his staff has been hunting for a house in and around Sector 8, Chandigarh.

His son and outgoing deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal too will have to vacate the official bungalow, situated next to the CM’s residence. However, he has his recently-built uber-luxe resort Sukhvilas to stay in. Badal Senior isn’t inclined to stay at the Pallanpur resort on the outskirts of Chandigarh, say sources close to him.

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All these years, Badal was allotted a bungalow as the CM and as the leader of the opposition earlier. For the first time in 20 years, Badal is not even the leader of opposition after the party tasted a crushing defeat in the recent elections. The post has gone to Aam Aadmi Party’s HS Phoolka as it has emerged as the main opposition party in Punjab.

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Sukhbir owns a six-kanal (3,000 square yards) house in Sector 9, Chandigarh. But a couple of years ago, he demolished it and is getting it rebuilt after merging it with a neighbouring plot of six kanals that he bought in recent years.

PUNJAB HAS NO PROVISION OF ALLOTTING BUNGALOWS TO FORMER CMs

As MLA, Badal Senior will be entitled to an accommodation but those close to him say it won’t match his stature.

After Capt Amarinder Singh lost the 2012 elections, he was staying in a private house in Sector 10, Chandigarh. Another former CM, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, was allotted a bungalow by Badal on security grounds three years ago.

In neighbouring Haryana, during former chief minister Bhupinder Hooda’s tenure, cabinet minister status and facilities, including bungalow, were allowed to former CMs but the Manohar Lal Khattar government struck down that order.