Calcutta, Jan. 28: Indira Bhavan, the Salt Lake residence of late chief minister Jyoti Basu, will become a state government guesthouse as it used to be earlier and not be turned into a museum in the leader’s memory.

“We have no plans to convert Indira Bhavan into a museum to store the articles used by Jyoti Babu. It will be a guesthouse under the urban development department,” said urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya.

He said the CPM had rented the house for Basu in 1989. Basu stayed there till his last days. “Our party used to pay rent every month,” the minister said.

Irrigation minister Subhash Naskar had submitted a proposal to the chief minister a few months back, requesting him to convert the address into a museum after Basu’s death. Asked about the proposal, Bhattacharya said: “It was his personal view.”

But political observers feel that a threat of an agitation by the Opposition may have forced the government to shelve the proposal. The Congress and Trinamul have said Indira Bhavan should be made a national museum because it was built in 1971 to accommodate then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.