Denied Lok Sabha ticket from Chandni Chowk, BJP MP Harsh Vardhan bows out of active politics

'I move on, I really can’t wait. I have promises to keep .. and miles to go before I sleep !! I have a dream .. and I know your blessings shall always remain with me . My ENT clinic at Krishna Nagar too awaits my return,' Harsh Vardhan said.

New Delhi:  A day after he was dropped from the Chandni Chowks seat to make way for trade union leader Praveen Khandelwal, former union minister Harsh Vardhan said that his clinic now awaits him.

A doctor by profession, the former health minister said that he jumped into the electoral fray only at the insistence of the then RSS leadership. 

His post on X elicited responses from rebel BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. 

In his post, Vardhan said that he will “finally bow out” to return to his roots after thirty years of an electoral career, during which he won all the five assembly and two parliamentary elections that he fought “with exemplary margins”. 

“Without remorse, I must say that it has been a marvelous innings …. I served as Delhi Health Minister as well as twice Union Health Minister, a subject close to my heart … (I was) able to first work towards creating a Polio free Bharat and then take care of the health of millions of our countrymen grappling with the dreaded COVID-19 during its first and second phases,” he posted.

"I shall continue to pursue my work against tobacco and substance abuse, against climate change and teaching simple and sustainable lifestyles,” he added. 

In his response to the post, Swamy said that Vardhan will come back to power again. “You will be back in power and in Parliament because (the) country needs honest educated persons like you,” his post read. 

Vardhan joins other BJP MPs Gautam Gambhir and Jayant Sinha who both posted on twitter on Saturday, before tickets were announced, that they were retiring from active politics. In Delhi, of the five names that it announced, the BJP is only retaining the ticket of Manoj Tiwari. Sushma Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri Swaraj will be fielded from New Delhi instead of union minister Meenakshi Lekhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi in Pravesh Verma’s place, and Ramvir Singh Vidhuri from South Delhi, instead of Ramesh Bidhuri.