Lucknow: The most coveted address in Uttar Pradesh is 5 Kalidas Marg, the official residence of the chief minister, but it is the adjoining bungalow at 6 Kalidas Marg that evokes fear among politicians.
The bungalow, once much sought-after because of its proximity to the chief minister’s residence, has no takers now.
The bungalow is said to be cursed and its occupants, in the past year, have fallen on bad days.
“It could be a coincidence, but the occupants of this bungalow have invariably been the one who held the number two position in the state government,” said an official of the estate department who did not want to be identified. “About two decades ago, top officials used to occupy this bungalow and most of them have also fallen from grace. None of the ministers are now ready to get this bungalow allotted in their name,” the official said.
Some of the recent occupants of 6, Kalidas Marg have been Babu Singh Khushwaha, a former Bahujan Samaj Party minister who went to jail in the National Rural Health Mission scam.
Others include Amar Singh, who also went to jail in the cash-for-vote scam, and former Samajwadi Party minister Waqar Ahmad Shah, who lived in the bungalow for barely six months before he slipped into coma. He has been in hospital for the past five years.
Top bureaucrats who lived in this bungalow include former chief secretary Neera Yadav, who was jailed in the Noida plot scam, and Pradeep Shukla, who went to jail in the NRHM scam.
SP leader and former chairman of the UP pollution control board Javed Abdi was allotted the bungalow when Akhilesh Yadav was chief minister. A few months later, Mr Abdi was dismissed from his post. After Mr Abdi’s fall from grace, the bungalow has been declared “inauspicious”.
Officials in the estate department say that 6, Kalidas Marg could either be converted into a security office of the chief minister or demolished and made a part of 7 Kalidas Marg, which has been allotted to deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya.
Former minister Rajendra Chaudhary was allotted this bungalow three years ago, but he vacated it within three days because he lost two of his important portfolios within 24 hours of entering the bungalow.
Another bungalow with a “curse” is 22, Gautam Palli because three ministers in the previous regime who lived here were sacked from the ministry. They include Anand Singh, Shivakant Ojha and Shadab Fatima.
Even room number 58 in the Vidhan Bhawan has not been taken by any minister so far because it is believed that the occupant of this room never completes a tenure.
