Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna resigned on Friday as expected, but not before allotting himself a palatial house with manicured lawns at the foothills of the Shivalik mountain ranges here.
Nestled in the wooded cantonment area, the house has two bedrooms, a huge common room, a drawing room which can fit in 50 people and a cavernous dining room, besides several smaller rooms.
Mr. Bahuguna’s new residence is a wing of the State guest house. He joins a string of predecessors, such as N.D. Tiwari (Congress), Bhagat Singh Koshiary (BJP) and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (BJP), who moved into government bungalows when they demitted office.
The end of Mr. Bahuguna’s 22-month tenure is being seen as a move to shore up the Congress ahead of the general election. He was criticised by his own MLAs and Ministers for what they thought was shoddy rescue and relief work during the floods and landslips in June last year.