Sushma Swaraj was the external affairs minister in the previous government (File)
Union Minister Harsh Vardhan on Monday set speculation rolling when, in a tweet, he congratulated BJP veteran Sushma Swaraj for becoming Governor of Andhra Pradesh. The tweet was soon deleted. And then Sushma Swaraj clarified that the report of her new job was not true.
"Many congratulations to BJP's veteran leader and my didi (elder sister), former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj for being appointed as Andhra Pradesh's governor. People of the state will gain from your vast experience in all the areas," Dr Harsh Vardhan wrote in Hindi in the now deleted tweet.
In response, Sushma Swaraj put out two tweets asserting that news of her new appointment was not true.
"I called on the Vice President of India Shri Venkaiah Naidu ji on demitting office as Minister of External affairs. This was enough for Twitter to appoint me as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh," she tweeted.
Sushma Swaraj, 67, was one of the most popular ministers on social media and was acknowledged for her quick response to SOS and calls for assistance on Twitter. Even banal or joking requests drew a response from Sushma Swaraj.
She opted out of the Lok Sabha elections on health grounds. The veteran was forced to take a break from work for months in 2016 because of a diabetes condition. She had a kidney transplant, for which she had to be away for three months.
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new cabinet, the Foreign Ministry has been assigned to S Jaishankar, a former foreign secretary.