Senior BJP leader and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced Tuesday that she will not contest the next Lok Sabha polls due to health reasons.
The 66-year-old leader, who is serving her fourth term in the House and has long been her party's most prominent woman face, told reporters, "It is the party which decides, but I have made up my mind not to contest the next (Lok Sabha) elections due to health reasons."
Swaraj had undergone kidney transplant in 2016.
"After being elected from Vidisha as Lok Sabha MP, I was the Leader of Opposition. Later I was given the responsibility of External Affairs Ministry. Despite holding these prime posts, I used to visit all Assembly segments in my constituency every month for nearly eight years.
"Doctors have advised me that I should avoid exposure to dust. Because of this, I am unable to take part even in election rallies," she said.
"Due to health reasons, I cannot participate in outdoor public programmes.... I have also told my party leadership, that in view of health reasons, I have to avoid such exposure," Swaraj said.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said it was her personal decision and declined to comment any further.
Swaraj's husband Swaraj Kaushal posted "thank you" on Twitter and said even Milkha Singh stopped running.
A spell-binding orator in Hindi, Swaraj is among the few top politicians capable of speaking in English with equal ease and has had a few rare distinctions, including being the youngest cabinet minister at 25 when she joined the Haryana government in 1977 and the first woman chief minister of Delhi.
She is also the first woman external affairs minister of the country. Indira Gandhi, though, as prime minister had held the portfolio.
Swaraj has also served in the Rajya Sabha for three terms and was a member of Haryana assembly- the state she comes from - twice.
She started her political life with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS' student wing, and later joined the BJP.
Her riveting speeches, grasp on issues and image of an ideal Indian woman marked her out for a bigger role at a very young age, and she steadily climbed up the organisational ladder in the Bharatiya Janata Party.
She was the Information and Broadcasting Minister in the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1996 and got the Cabinet portfolio again after he led the BJP to power in 1998.
However, she had to resign to become Delhi chief minister as the party leadership believed she could lead the BJP to power in the national capital when the incumbent was seen as unpopular.
Her short tenure, though, was of little help as the party lost badly.
Swaraj's most notable political battle was the one against the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Bellary in 1999 Lok Sabha polls.
She was her party's nationalist woman counter to Gandhi, often attacked by the BJP for her Italian origins.
Swaraj's intensive campaign, during which she gained proficiency in Kannada, won her innumerable local hearts with her speeches in their language, but Gandhi, who was fighting her first Lok Sabha election in a region then seen as her party's pocket borough, got better of her. Swaraj fell short of victory but grew in stature.
Long seen as a protege of veteran BJP leader L K Advani, she also was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha between 2009-14.
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