Sushma Not to contest in next log sabha elections

Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, declared in Indore on Tuesday that she would not be contesting the next Lok Sabha polls scheduled for 2019 and that the top leadership of the BJP had been informed of the same.

“It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest the next elections,” she told reporters on the sidelines of a campaign event in Indore for the Assembly election in Madhya Pradesh.

Ms. Swaraj, one of the senior-most leaders of the BJP, is a Lok Sabha member from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh. She was the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha during the term of the second UPA government.

Ms. Swaraj’s announcement came out when she was reacting to questions on her diminished political activity following her kidney-related illness and replacement surgery.

“I have not been active for a year because of a kidney condition. You can’t judge whether I am active based on whether I have attended election meetings or not. Today, L.K. Advani comes to all meetings, blesses us, sits in parliament. To say that I am not active just because I didn’t attend an election meeting for a year… if you think that means I should be out of politics, it is unfair,” she said.

Sources in the BJP said that Ms. Swaraj may be offered a Rajya Sabha seat in future.

Close aides of Ms Swaraj said that her reasons were “purely to do with health reasons.”

Ms. Swaraj’s husband, Swaraj Kaushal added a piquant note to the announcement by thanking his wife for the announcement. “At some point even (athlete) Milkha Singh had to stop running,” he said on Twitter.