INDORE: In a major development, External Affairs Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart Sushma Swaraj announced that she will not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
Speaking at a rally in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, the 66-year-old said, "It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest next elections."
Swaraj, a Lok Sabha member from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, is one of the senior-most leaders of the BJP.
She also rubbished all talks of BJP facing anti-incumbency in Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls and praised the good governance under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
In December 2016, Swaraj successfully underwent a kidney transplant at AIIMS in the national capital.
Several reports claimed that Swaraj took the decision over health concerns.
A former Supreme Court lawyer, Swaraj is a seven-time MP and three-time MLA.
At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of north Indian state of Haryana. She also became the Delhi Chief Minister for a brief period in 1998.
