External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, 66, announced on Tuesday, 20 November, that she will not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections – a statement that took many by surprise more for its timing than its content.
That Swaraj may not fight a direct election after undergoing a kidney transplant in December 2016 was an open secret within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but she revealed the news at a press conference in Indore in the middle of the Assembly election campaign in Madhya Pradesh.
“It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest the next (Lok Sabha) elections,” Swaraj said, adding that she had conveyed her decision to the party leadership due to health reasons.
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