Sushma Swaraj not to contest Lok Sabha poll due to health reasons

INDORE: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj Tuesday said she won't contest next Lok Sabha poll due to health reasons.

The senior BJP leader told reporters here that she has "made up her mind" not to contest the elections.

"It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest the next (Lok Sabha) elections," she said.


The 66-year-old Sushma Swaraj, who underwent a kidney transplant in 2016, said she had conveyed her decision to the party.

Swaraj is currently the sitting MP from Vidisha constituency which she retained in the 2014 polls with a huge margin of over 4 lakh votes.

Swaraj has a long distinguished career as a politician - she has been elected seven times as Member of Parliament and three times as an MLA.

At age 25, she became the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government in 1977. She was also the first woman chief minister of Delhi in 1998.

Swaraj served as Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting with additional charge of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Health Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's second government.

Sushma Swaraj, a four-time Lok Sabha and two-time Rajya Sabha member, also won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2004 and served as the leader of the Opposition during during UPA-II government between 2009 to 2014. replacing party veteran L.K. Advani.