New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to give him a ministerial position in the new government due to ongoing health problems.
Jaitley’s absence will leave Modi without one of his most important lieutenants as he begins his second five-year term in power following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide election victory earlier this month.
Jaitley said in a letter to Modi, issued to the media on Wednesday, that he had faced serious health challenges in the last 18 months and needed to recuperate.
“I should be allowed a reasonable time for myself, my treatment and my health, and, therefore not be a part of any responsibility, for the present, in the new government,” Jaitley said in the letter.
A spokesman of prime minister’s office declined to comment on Jaitley’s letter to Modi.
Aside from holding one of the most important positions in government, Jaitley, a 66-year-old lawyer-turned politician, was also the cabinet’s main communicator with the media, one of the ruling party’s most articulate voices in parliament, and was a strong campaigner in the recent election despite his poor health.
