BJP leader and former finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to not include him in the National Democratic Alliance government, citing health issues.

Asking the Prime Minister to recuse him from any ministerial responsibility "for the present", Jaitley wrote, "I am writing to you to formally request you that 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."

The former Union finance minister, however, expressed his willingness to undertake any informal work to support the government or the party.

"I would obviously have a lot of time at my disposal to undertake any work informally to support the Government or the Party," Jaitley added in his letter.

Speculation was rife in the past few days that Jaitley is unlikely to be part of the Modi 2.0 cabinet.

Jaitley 66, was unlikely to take up a vital role in the government as his health has deteriorated over the past few months.

Jaitley, who is one of the top three leaders in the BJP and the government, after Modi and party president Amit Shah, was not seen at the celebrations at BJP headquarters on Thursday night. He has not been seen in public for at least two weeks but has been publishing blogs and messages on social media.

Jaitley, a lawyer-turned politician, is one of the most important leaders in the current cabinet. He often acts as chief trouble-shooter.

In the past five years, Jaitley has steered through parliament major economic legislation such as a nationwide goods and services tax – which had languished for nearly two decades – and has defended controversial policies for the government.

Modi had given him the responsibility of three ministries when he first took office in 2014, finance, defence and information and broadcasting ministries.

A diabetic, Jaitley's health issues became worse after he had a kidney transplant in May last year. He also had to skip the interim budget in February when he was in hospital in the United States getting cancer treatment.

Shah, Modi's right hand man, could be a candidate to take up the finance ministry, according to a senior minister in the current government, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Piyush Goyal, 54, current railways and coal minister, also could be considered given that he stepped into the role twice in the Modi government between 2014 and 2019 when Jaitley was out sick.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take the oath of office on Thursday evening along with his council of ministers after storming the BJP to power in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections 2019.

BJP on its own won 303 seats, while the saffron-party-led NDA managed to secure 353 seats.

-with inputs from Reuters

First Published:May 29, 2019 1:24 PM IST