Rajeev Chandrasekhar responds to retirement rumours: ‘Sipahi of Narendra Modi…’

Chandrasekhar said, “No, I have not retired at all. In my social media post, I was relinquishing my 18 years of being an MP and now becoming a full-time party worker for the BJP and ‘Sipahi’ of Narendra Modi for working for his vision of Viksit Bharat. The Congress party and other people have jumped on that and tried to characterise that as some sort of retirement for me or me running away because I lost an election in Thiruvananthapuram…,”

“I fought a good election, and more importantly, 3.5 lakh people of Kerala came out and supported the BJP. They supported Suresh Gopi and made him successful in Thrissur…We are not going anywhere. The Congress party, which has gone to its historic third defeat in the last three elections of 2014, 2019 and 2024…The question that most congressmen are asking Rahul Gandhi is how come every time you are the leader we are losing and this election also they lost,” he further added.

Chandrasekhar, who was a Minister of State in the previous Narendra Modi-led government, last week posted on X about ending his public life but later clarified that he meant his tenure as a Member of Parliament and Minister of State had concluded.

He promptly deleted his initial post–“Today curtains down on my 18-year stint in public service, of which three years I had the privilege to serve with PM @narendramodi ji’s TeamModi2.0. 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’s turned out.”

Shortly thereafter, Chandrasekhar deleted the post and issued a new one saying that the earlier one was by an intern and it “created some confusion among a section of people about my future political work”.

Shashi Tharoor, who successfully retained his Thiruvananthapuram seat, responded to the initial post by expressing confidence in Chandrasekhar’s ability to continue contributing to the country.

“As someone who discussed various issues with you during your stint in government, I have no doubt that there is much more you can contribute to our country through public service, @RajeevRC_X. Elective office is only one path (and you are young enough to have another crack at that too!) All the best for the future,” Tharoor wrote on X.

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Published: 12 Jun 2024, 03:58 PM IST