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Why would Pankaja Munde swap bungalows for ‘jinxed’ Ramtek?

Dec 25, 2024 09:07 AM IST

Pankaja Munde swaps her official bungalow for the jinxed Ramtek, recalling fond childhood memories despite its history of misfortune for ministers

MUMBAI: Ramtek, the sprawling, sea-facing bungalow on Narayan Dabholkar Road in Mumbai’s posh Malabar Hill, has a bit of a reputation for being unlucky for its high-profile ministerial residents. Its suspected jinx stems from the fact that every minister who has occupied this rambling, colonial-style property has either lost their ministerial berths or faced corruption charges – in the last 29 years.

In 2022, the bungalow was allotted to Deepak Kesarkar, education minister in the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government. Kesarkar did not retain his ministerial berth when the Mahayuti government returned to power this year. (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)
In 2022, the bungalow was allotted to Deepak Kesarkar, education minister in the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government. Kesarkar did not retain his ministerial berth when the Mahayuti government returned to power this year. (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

So why would Pankaja Munde, Maharashtra’s environment minister, swap her newly allotted official accommodation, Chitrakut, for Ramtek? Munde has traded bungalows with revenue minister Chandrashkhar Banwakule, who readily agreed.

Ramtek’s jinx is the talk of political circles every time a new ministry takes office. Vilasrao Deshmukh, who occupied the bungalow as a minister in the Congress government led by Sharad Pawar, lost the election in 1995. When the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance came to power in 1995, the bungalow was allotted to Gopinath Munde, who was then deputy chief minister. Munde had to vacate the bungalow in 1999, when the alliance lost the election. He never returned to power in the state as the saffron alliance was not re-elected until 2014. Munde died in a car accident that same year.

In 1999, Ramtek’s new occupant was then deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal in the Congress-NCP government. Three years later, Bhujbal quit following allegations he faced in the Telgi case. In 2014, when the BJP government assumed charge in the state, the bungalow was assigned to then revenue minister Eknath Khadse. Two years later, Khadse quit following allegations of impropriety in a land transfer case. In 2022, the bungalow was allotted to Deepak Kesarkar, education minister in the Eknath Shinde-led Mahayuti government. Kesarkar did not retain his ministerial berth when the Mahayuti government returned to power this year.

So why would Pankaja Munde want to take on the ‘curse of Ramtek’? The short answer is, for sentimental reasons. Pankaja, daughter of Gopinath Munde, has fond memories of the five years she spent in Ramtek as a child, when her father occupied it as deputy chief minister.

When she asked Bawankule if he would exchange bungalows with her, he had no problem accepting the nearby Chitrakut, which was originally allocated to Pankaja.

Meanwhile, deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde is yet to vacate Varsha, the official residence of the state chief minister. He has zeroed in on, not one but two bungalows in Malabar Hill – Nandanvan and Agradoot, adjacent properties separated by a wall. The bungalows will be amalgamated into a single property by razing the wall and assigned to Shinde.

He had occupied Nandanvan when he was a minister in the Devendra Fadnavis ministry from 2014 to 2019. Then, he was allotted both Nandanvan and Agradoot as a minister in the MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray. When Shinde became chief minister in 2022, he shifted to Varsha but retained Nandanvan and Agradoot, which he used for official party business.

The state’s other deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar will continue to live in Devgiri, a bungalow adjacent to Ramtek. Clearly the ‘curse’ next door hasn’t rubbed off on him, for Pawar has been occupying it for more than a decade – as a minister and later as deputy chief minister in Congress-NCP governments, and then in the BJP-led Mahayuti governments.

Royalstone, another coveted, colonial-style bungalow located off Peddar Road, has been assigned to water resources minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil.

Several ministers from the previous Mahayuti government, who have been retained in the present administration, will continue to live in the bungalows they currently occupy. As for the new ministers, most of the have been allotted smaller bungalows on Madam Cama Road near Mantralaya, while some have been assigned apartments in government buildings at Nariman Point and Malabar Hill.

As it turns out, a couple of junior ministers aren’t exactly thrilled at being handed apartments instead of bungalows. “We have a lot of party workers and government officials visiting us every day. Bungalows have designated spaces for meetings like these. Apartments are much smaller and inconvenient. Looks like we’ll have to make do with what we’ve been given,” shrugged a junior minister.

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