Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has declined the BJP’s offer to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. As the senior BJP leader put it during a recent media interaction, she did not have the ‘kind of funds’ required to launch a poll campaign.
“After thinking over a week or ten days, I just went back to say… maybe not. I do not have that kind of money to contest. I also have a problem whether it is Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. It’s also going to be a question of various other winnability criteria that they use…Are you from this community or are you from that religion? Are you from this? I said no, I do not think I am going to able to do it. I am very grateful that they accepted my argument…So I am not contesting,” Sitharaman said during the TIMES NOW Summit 2024.
As she put it upon being asked to elaborate: “My salary, my earnings, and my savings are mine and not the Consolidated Fund of India.”
The BJP has fielded several existing Rajya Sabha members in the upcoming elections including Piyush Goyal, Bhupender Yadav, Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Mansukh Mandaviya, and Jyotiraditya Scindia. Nirmala Sitharaman — currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka — however said that she would limit herself to campaigning for different candidates.
“I will also be attending a lot of media events. And going with the candidates like tomorrow I will be going for Rajiv Chandrasekhar campaign and so yes, I’ll be on the campaign trail,” she added.
(With inputs from agencies)
