New Delhi: Former India cricketer and member of parliament Yusuf Pathan, who broke away from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) two months ago, the Gujarat government has decided to allot him a disputed 978-square-metre Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) plot, The Indian Express reported. He was served an encroachment notice over the same plot two years ago.The Vadodara civic body, which is controlled by the BJP, had served the notice on Pathan in June 2024, days after he won the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal on a TMC ticket. He had replaced Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s 25 year hold on the seat. The Gujarat high court had held that he encroached on state land in Vadodara, occupied for a decade without payment, with costs still to settle.But in June 2026, a month after the BJP came to power in Bengal and the TMC split, Pathan was among the 20 TMC MPs who broke away from the party and merged with the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI).Express reported that the proposal for allotment of the plot, drafted by the VMC’s land estate department, has been put before the standing committee of the civic body.The proposal, the report added, is based on the BJP-led Gujarat government resolution on August 13 approving the allotment of the plot to Pathan. Once it reached the civic body, Pathan withdrew his appeal before the Gujarat high court against the rejection of his earlier claim for allotment of the plot.According to the report, 500 square metres of the plot will be allotted as a ‘gift’ to the MP for residential use, while the remaining 478 sq.m. will be transferred at a concessional rate of 55% of the valuation made by the valuation committee of the Vadodara Urban Development Authority (VUDA) on March 17, 2026.As per a Times of India report, however, the allotment is yet to be finalised. VMC municipal commissioner Arun Mahesh Babu told the daily that the civic body had received the state government’s approval. He said the details were yet to be finalised and the proposal would have to complete the required approval process.The disputed plot is under Town Planning Scheme 22, Final Plot 90, in Vadodara’s Tandalja area. It is adjacent to the Pathan family’s landmark white bungalow, where Yusuf and his younger brother, the former cricketer Irfan Pathan, live with their families and parents.The dispute began in 2012, when Pathan approached the VMC seeking the open municipal plot on a 99-year lease without public auction. He had cited security concerns arising from his public profile as an international cricketer, and said that the allotment of the adjoining land would be convenient for residential use.In June 2014, however, the urban development department had rejected the proposal, citing the requirement for public auction or open bidding.Pathan had challenged the civic body’s action before the Gujarat high court, but in August 2025, the court upheld the government’s rejection. Pathan subsequently appealed against the decision.