Lok Sabha Elections: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that she turned down the offer from the Bharatiya Janata Party to contest Lok Sabha elections, pleading that she did not have the 'kind of funds' required for fighting the polls. The BJP leader said that BJP President J P Nadda gave her the option to contest either from Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu.
Speaking at the TIMES NOW Summit 2024, Sitharaman said, "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," as quoted by news agency PTI. "I am very grateful that they accepted my argument...So I am not contesting," she further stated.
When asked why even the finance minister of the country does not have enough funds to fight the Lok Sabha elections, she said that the Consolidated Fund of India does not belong to her. "My salary, my earnings, and my savings are mine and not the Consolidated Fund of India," she stated.
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's campaign, and so yes, I'll be on the campaign trail," she added.