New Delhi: Sushma Swaraj, Union Minister for External Affairs and one of the senior most leaders of the ruling BJP, has declared that she will not contest the 2019 national election owing to health reasons.

“It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest next elections,” Swaraj shared her decision with media in Madhya Pradesh, where elections will be held later this month.

Swaraj is the Lok Sabha MP from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh.

Swaraj was forced to stay away from official engagements for months in 2016 because of a diabetes condition. She underwent a kidney transplant with the organ being harvested from a living unrelated donor on December 10, 2016.