Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman declared on Wednesday that she has made the decision to refrain from contesting in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

She cited two reasons for this decision - the lack of financial resources to fund her campaign and her realization that she does not meet the criteria for winning in southern states like Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu, which she had previously contemplated contesting from. 

The Minister, who is serving her second term in the Rajya Sabha, has been approached by the top brass of the BJP to consider running for a seat in the Lok Sabha in the upcoming election. This suggestion has also been given to some of her colleagues in the Upper House, including Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Environment and Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav.

Responding to a query on whether she would contest the election, which begins on April 19, Sitharaman said: “No. The party did ask me but after thinking about it for a week or ten days, I said maybe not… My party president did ask me, ‘Would you like to contest from somewhere in the south, the option is Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh’.”

“But I don’t have that kind of money to contest. I also have a problem, because whether it’s Andhra or Tamil Nadu, it’s also going to be a question of various other winnability criteria that they use — are you from this community, are you from this religion… I said, ‘No, I don’t think I am going to be able to do it’,” she said, at an event hosted by Times Now. 

“The party was graceful enough — and I am very grateful — to accept my arguments, and say: ‘Chalo, you won’t. It’s alright.’ So I am not contesting,” the Minister, whose term in the Rajya Sabha will conclude in June 2028, stated.