Looking forward to first LS battle; party will decide seat: Mos IT

Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is among the ministers not renominated to the Rajya Sabha, on Friday said he is raring to contest his first Lok Sabha polls and looking forward to "an even more exciting phase" in his political career.

One needs to be extremely responsible and a very grassroots politician to be a Lok Sabha member and "I am deeply fortunate" that the prime minister and the BJP leadership considered him worth of it, the technology entrepreneur-turned-politician said.

He said the constituency or the state from where he will fight the elections, due in April-May, will be decided by the party.

"...I'm certainly looking forward to what I believe will be an even more exciting phase in my political career," the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship told PTI in an interview.

"I'm deeply fortunate that our prime minister and my home minister and my party president have said that they think me worthy enough or qualified enough to contest the Lok Sabha (polls). I'm quite excited by the next phase of my political career," he said.

It is being speculated in political circles that Chandrasekhar may either be asked to contest from a seat in Karnataka, perhaps one of the constituencies in Bengaluru, or from Kerala where he may be pitted against Shashi Tharoor of the Congress in Thiruvananthapuram.

He is a Nair by caste and hails from Kerala but has been living in Karnataka for the past few decades.

Chandrasekhar had in 2005 sold BPL Mobile, his telecom business, and entered politics. In the following year, he was elected to the Upper House of Parliament as an independent MP from Karnataka, with support from both the BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular).

He was re-elected in 2012 and 2018, the last being as a BJP candidate. That six-year term is ending now but he has not been renominated by his party. And just as in case of other ministers who have not been re-nominated, the buzz is that he will contest Lok Sabha elections.

Chandrasekhar says it is not easy being a Lok Sabha member.

"Being a Lok Sabha member...you need to be a very grassroots politician, connected to your people. You need to be in this modern world of information and social media extremely responsible politicians. I'm glad that my leadership thinks that I'm capable of doing that. So I look forward to it," he said.

He, however, termed reports of him contesting from either Bengaluru or Thiruvananthapuram as speculative.

"I tend to be very zen about these things and not worry too much about it till I'm told. I know that my leadership will think of the right way to deploy me in the right constituency, and I will fight...to win," Chandrasekhar said.