Atal Bihari Vajpayee

New Delhi : A house now being renovated for outgoing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was once occupied by his successor-to-be Manmohan Singh.

For the house earmarked for Vajpayee –– 8 Krishna Menon Marg –– was occupied by Singh when he was the finance minister in the government of prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao ).

After Singh, the house was occupied by late commerce and industries minister Murasoli Maran, who died last year after a protracted illness.

A Congress Party supporter, who threatened on May 18 to jump off a tree outside 10 Janpath, the residence of Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, unless Gandhi agreed to be the prime minister. (Photo: AFP)

An aide to Vajpayee said he would move out of the prime ministerial house at 7 Race Course Road to the new house in three to four weeks.

“He has been keen to shift early, but we have been told it would take a couple of more weeks to get it (the new house) ready,” he said.

The Public Works Department, or PWD, has deployed a host of workers to get the house ready soon so as to allow Vajpayee to move in.

It took nearly two months before Vajpayee could move into the prime minister’s official residence after he took oath of office in 1998.

He assumed office on March 19, but could move into the house only May 11 as outgoing prime minister I.K. Gujral needed time to move into the new house allotted to him.

At 8, Krishna Menon Marg, Vajpayee’s new neighbors will be Congress Party Rajya Sabha member K. Karunakaran, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, and former defense minister, George Fernandes.