Prez polls: Building that was British seat of power turns into voting booth

Delhi MLAs on Monday queued up to cast their votes in the Presidential election on the premises of the historic Assembly building that had once housed the Central Legislative Assembly, which was later shifted to the new Parliament House near Raisina Hill in 1927.

The one-room polling station was located in room number 37 of the white-colour landmark as the exercise was carried out amid tight security and COVID-19 safety norms in place.

A total of 68 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia, cast their votes.

Located on a sprawling campus in Civil Lines, the current Delhi Assembly building initially served as the Secretariat of the imperial government while New Delhi capital was being built.

 

British monarch King George V had announced the shifting of the imperial capital from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in his coronation durbar here on December 12, 1911. The construction of the new capital took 20 years to complete.

Until the new capital was ready by 1930s, the British Raj administration was run from an enclave in the Civil Lines area.

The current Assembly building, designed by architect E. Montague Thomas, served as the temporary seat of power of the Raj, housing the imperial secretariat.

The viceroy took residence in an imposing building, now the official residence of the vice-chancellor of the Delhi University, until the Viceroy's House (now Rashtrapati Bhavan) was built atop the Raisina Hill.

Architects Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens and Herbert Baker together designed the new capital of Delhi -- later christened 'New Delhi' -- and the imperial secretariat was shifted to the North Block and South Block, flanking the grand Viceroy's House.

Near the new Secretariat, Baker placed the iconic circular, colonnaded Parliament House building which was inaugurated in 1927.

A polling station was built there for voting by MPs in the Presidential election on Monday.

The sprawling circular edifice covers an area of nearly six acres and is widely recognised by its creamy sandstone colonnade of 144 pillars on the first floor.

But, before it took residence in the new capital, the Central Legislative Assembly was housed in the current Assembly building.

The semi-circular structure with two imposing towers in the middle near the central portico has been praised by historians and architects alike for its elegant architecture and aesthetic look.