No takers for a sea-facing bunglow!

There is this beautiful bunglow in Malabar Hill, Ramtek, the only sea-facing one. It is a ministerial bunglow and ideally, there should have been a clamor to get this bunglow. Yet, it sits empty and forlorn. Not a single minister wants this bunglow. Why? The perception is that it’s jinxed!

Over the past two decades, almost every politician who had lived there suffered career setbacks. The most recent was Eknath Khadse – was the number two man in Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ Govt was forced to resign following allegations of impropriety in a land deal. This was just two years after he took over as minister. Khadse resigned from the cabinet and vacated Ramtek in September 2016. Before Khadse, the bungalow was home to former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, and former deputy chief ministers Gopinath Munde and Chhagan Bhubjal.

No other minister has moved since, even though Ramtek has the most attractive features among all official residences in the area.

The bunglow is spread over 8,857 sqft, with five bedrooms — three on the ground floor, two on the first — a hall, living room, dining hall, office, meeting hall, and space for personal assistants.

The PwD has said that not a single minister has shown interest in the bunglow. The ministers say that they are not superstitious but given the unpredictable nature of a political career, no one wants this one!

Wish they open it up for us mere mortals – rent it out and let us experience life of a minister.