Former IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday posted that he is taking an exit from electoral politics after “18 year stint of public service”. In a post on X, he wrote that he would continue to work for the party as a leader. Minutes later, however, he deleted that post.
The minister’s now-deleted post read, “Today curtains down on my 18 year stint of public service , of which 3 years I had the privilege to serve with PM Narendra Modiji’s Team Modi2.0. I certainly didn’t intend to end my 18 years of public service, as a candidate who lost an Election, but that’s how it turned out.”
Chandrasekhar further wrote, “My deepest thanks to all those I met, all those who supported me – and in particular all those karyakartas and leaders who so inspired and energized me. Thanks also to my colleagues in govt over last 3 years. As a BJP karyakarta, I will continue to support and work in the party,” he added.
In a new post, he wrote, “Today marks the end of my 18 years long stint as a MP and my 3 years as Minister of State in the Council of Ministers under Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji. A tweet – tweeted by a new young intern in my team – thanking everyone for their inspiration and support during these 18 years of public service as MP, has created some confusion among a section of people about my future political work. Inorder to avoid any further complexities on this, the tweet stands deleted.”
“My work and commitment to taking India forward and Thiruvanthapuram, as a karyakarta of BJP remains as relentless as before,” he added.
This comes a few days after Chandrasekhar lost to Congress’s three-time MP Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram seat in a very tight race in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Tharoor won by a close margin of just 16,077 votes.