lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 05, 2019 16:20 IST

Sumitra Mahajan, the Lok Sabha Speaker, has announced that she will not contest the Lok Sabha elections. Mahajan issued a statement on Friday to this effect wondering why there is “indecision” in the party over announcing Lok Sabha candidate from Indore seat.

Mahajan, who is turning 76 on April 12, said, “The Bharatiya Janata Party has not announced its candidate from Indore till date. Why is this indecision? It is possible the party is hesitant taking a call…Therefore, I announce that I will not contest the Lok Sabha elections. The party should take a decision with free heart, without any hesitation.”

The BJP appeared to be in a dilemma over fielding her. There had been reports suggesting that winnability of a candidate might prevail over the 75-year age bar in the BJP while giving tickets for the Lok Sabha elections.

“There were speculations and so I decided to end them and free the party to make its choice. I will not contest Lok Sabha elections,” news agency PTI quoted Mahajan as saying over phone from Indore.

The BJP has not fielded many of its veterans including LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi in the Lok Sabha elections. Earlier this week, Mahajan had said that hinted that the decision over her candidature rested with the party leadership.

“I did not seek ticket from the Indore seat in 1989 when I first contested the Lok Sabha elections. The party on its own made me its candidate. I have never demanded my nomination,” PTI had quoted Mahajan as saying on Tuesday.

Mahajan is the only second woman MP to be the Lok Sabha Speaker. Congress’s Meira Kumar was the first woman MP to occupy the chair.

Meanwhile, with the BJP delaying announcement of its Indore candidate, names of BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Indore Mayor and MLA Malini Gaud, another Madhya Pradesh legislator Usha Thakur, Indore Development Authority’s former chairman Shanker Lalwani and former MLA Bhanwar Singh Shekawat are doing the rounds as possible party nominee from the constituency.

Indore Lok Sabha seat will to the polls on May 19, the last phase of the parliamentary polls.