BJP wants government to buy London house where Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar once lived

The BJP on Friday asked the government to acquire the 2,050 sq ft, three-storey house in London where Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar once lived.

Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said he has written to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking Prime Minister's intervention to acquire the house.

"This is an emotional issue for Ambedkar followers and people of Maharashtra," Shelar said.

The house has market price of Rs 40 crore. An agent of Goldschmidt & Howland said that after the initial flurry of activity last year, the Indian authorities seem to have lost interest in the property, according to Shelar.

Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had also made a request to the Union government to buy the property.

"Towards the end of my term, we had asked the Centre to buy this mansion. Its an international transaction and could have only been carried out by the Union Government. I do not know what happened later," said Chavan.