JOIN US As the controversy over his luxury hotel stay hit him in the face on Tuesday, the former Karnataka chief minister took pains to explain that he was staying in the star hotel only because his official residence was not yet ready for occupation.
Difficulty finding houses and living in them have followed Krishna for the last several years in Delhi. After he was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2008, Krishna was allotted the residence on Teenmurti Lane, which belonged to the then external affairs minister Natwar Singh.
“I then told Singh to continue until he made alternative arrangements. Then the government started renovating the house. When the renovation was in progress, I was made a minister,” Krishna had told Deccan Herald.
After he was made a minister, Krishna began to look for a bigger house fit enough for his status in the protocol-conscious foreign ministry. After considering a couple of houses, his team zeroed in on a bungalow on Tyagaraja Marg. Renovation is now on for this bungalow and it will take months for the work to be completed.
Dubbed often as “five star Krishna” for his lifestyle, he had faced the same problem in 1996 when he became an RS member. After waiting for a considerable amount of time, he had just moved in to the Lodhi Estate residence when he had to shift to Karnataka as CM in 1999. Of course, his efforts to retain that house as CM did not bear fruit.