The new building is located right behind the offices of the Samajwadi Party.
Lucknow:
It was once the office of Lucknow's Chief Town Planner. Today, 7 Bandariya Bagh is the base for those on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's side in his raging feud with his father and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
In October 2016, Akhilesh inaugurated the offices of the Janeshwar Mishra Trust in the Bungalow. Mr Mishra was a former Samajwadi Party lawmaker, also fondly referred to as 'Chote Lohia' for his socialist ideology. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is the chairman of the trust, which was formed in 2013.
The name of the locality is taken from the once popular name of the Lucknow Zoo - established in 1921 - that was locally referred to as the 'Bandariya Bagh' and sprawled across from its present location to the areas where the office-cum-residence of the chief minister and other high profile bungalows now stand in the city. The wilderness later gave way to a railway colony and the expansive bungalows.
This particular bungalow was vacated by the town planning department in 2014 and was allotted to the Trust in 2015 by the state government.
When this bungalow was inaugurated, the event itself was highly symbolic. Akhilesh and his uncle - then powerful cabinet minister Shivpal Yadav - were already feuding. Then newly installed as state president of the Samajwadi Party by Mulayam Singh Yadav - replacing Akhilesh - Shivpal Yadav had just sacked four youth leaders extremely close to Akhilesh from the party
All four, were present at the inauguration of the trust office - Sanjay Lathar, Sunil Sajan, Anand Bhadauriya and Udayveer Singh. These leaders had handled the UP Chief Minister's immensely popular rath yatra in the campaign for the 2012 assembly elections.
In the last three months, this once nondescript bungalow has become the nerve centre for Akhilesh supporters. Sources say that a 235 parallel candidate list issued by Akhilesh Yadav, in his latest rebellion against father Mulayam and uncle Shivpal that's almost split the party, was drafted at this office, and selectively leaked to media outlets from here by Akhilesh Yadav confidantes.
The office is located right behind the offices of the Samajwadi Party. Though right now the official party office itself is in the hands of Akhilesh Yadav loyalists, sources in his camp say that in case the Election Commission decides in Mulayam' Singh's favour in the battle for the party symbol and name, then 7 Bandariya Bagh is already serving as a war room for Akhilesh's camp for the upcoming UP elections and his team will shift entirely into the rooms here.