Gujarat Congress, which once inspired Freedom Movement across India, and the world, on Monday, was embroiled in a controversy triggered by reports that the party finds the Vastudosh (inauspicious designing) of its Head Quarters as the cause of its exit from political power since 1995.

Reports in a section of the media suggested that the party has, because of this reason, shifted the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Head Quarters from Paldi area to the Old City’s Bhadra area.

GPCC spokesman Manish Doshi, however, refuted these reports, saying that the party had only shifted its Ahmedabad city unit office to Bhadra where the Congress recently regained control of its old office from the Sardar Patel Smriti Bhavan Trust, which had come to occupy it following party split in 1977. “Our GPCC office continues to function as usual from Paldi,” he told BusinessLine .

This is not the first time that the Gujarat Congress is battling such reports. Earlier also, its Paldi Head Quarters, originally a bungalow that was later redeveloped into a three-storeyed building, had come under a cloud for the same reason. Some Congress leaders believed that the party’s ‘bad times’ started when it shifted base there. Even otherwise, except during the election season, the Paldi office often wore a deserted look as few cared to visit there.

Around three years ago, Congress leaders were reported to be toying with the idea of shifting the GPCC office in the Nehrunagar locality but Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi ‘scuttled’ the move as he found it too embarrassing.

On the other hand, the ruling BJP is also not free of its Vastu-beliefs. When it shifted its Head Quarters a few years ago from Khanpur here to the newly-constructed one in Gandhinagar, some BJP leaders feared the new abode could prove harmful. However, as it turned out, when it started functioning from new base, the party zoomed to national power and Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister!

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