Citing the lack of ‘kind of funds’ required to fight the Lok Sabha polls, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman on Wednesday said that she declined the BJP’s offer to contest the elections. The minister further said that the Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda offered her to fight from either Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu.
“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,” she said.
Sitaraman’s comment came as she was speaking at a news channel conclave on Wednesday. “I am very grateful that they accepted my argument…So I am not contesting,” she added.
During her interview when the presenter asked her why the Finance Minister of the country does not have funds to contest the Lok Sabha polls, Nirmala jokingly said that it’s because the Consolidated Fund of India does not belong to her.
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“My salary, my earnings, my savings are mine and not the Consolidated Fund of India,” she said.
Notably, Niramala Sitaraman has been a Rajya Sabha MP since 2016, the year she joined the Modi cabinet. The ruling BJP has fielded several existing Rajya Sabha members in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, beginning April 19.
These include Piyush Goyal, Bhupender Yadav, Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Mansukh Mandaviya, and Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Sitharaman is a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka.
The minister said that she will be 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.
source: Jagran English
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