The political leaders of the country reacted to Sushma Swaraj’s decision of exiting the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
Sushma Swaraj, a Union Minister, declared her exit from the upcoming national elections of 2019, yesterday.
Mrs. Swaraj, the senior most member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP,) announced she is not going to contest the general elections due to her health issues. In 2016, due to a kidney transplant, she took a break from her duties as a Member of Parliament (MP) of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh.
Ms. Swaraj notified Amit Shah, the Finance Minister, about her decision and took to Twitter to make it clear that she is quitting the general elections and not retiring from politics.
Ms. Swaraj broke the news while addressing media in Indore and said, “It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest the next elections.”
Sushma Swaraj, 66 years old, is one of the strongest and oldest leaders of BJP and is the current External Affairs Minister of India. She became the External Affairs Minister in May 2014.
Politicians and leaders such as Shashi Tharoor, Swapan Dasgupta, P. Chidambaram and many others took to Twitter to support Sushma Swaraj’s decision.
Twitter is flooded with posts talking about Sushma Swaraj not contesting next year’s elections.
For all our political differences, I am sorry that @SushmaSwaraj will leave Parliament. As chair of the jury for @Outlookindia‘s social media awards, I was happy to honour her Twiplomacy. As chair of Parliment’s ExtAffsCmt i always found her a gracious EAMhttps://t.co/z167htQ3LW
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 20, 2018
@SushmaSwaraj retiring from electoral politics on account of health issues doesn’t imply she is retiring from politics altogether. There is a great deal of contribution she can make to public life despite not being in the Lok Sabha.
— Swapan Dasgupta (@swapan55) November 20, 2018
Smt Sushma Swaraj is the Member of Parliament from Madhya Pradesh and she is smart. She has read the writing on the wall in Madhya Pradesh and announced that she will not contest the 2019 LS election
— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 20, 2018
