Former Union Minister and Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, 66, passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) today after brief illness.
Jaitley was rushed to AIIMS on August 9 after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness.
AIIMS has not issued any bulletin on Jaitley’s health since August 10. Hospital sources however on Tuesday said he is on life support. A multidisciplinary team of doctors is monitoring his condition.
Several prominent leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Jitendra Singh and Ram Vilas Paswan, President Ram Nath Kovind, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Congress’s Abhishek Singhvi and Jyotiraditya Scindia and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had visited the hospital in past few days to enquire about his health and meet his family members.
Jaitley,who was a lawyer by profession, had been a key member of Modi’s Cabinet in the BJP government’s first term. He held the finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government.
Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election, presumably because of his ill-health. In May this year, Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS for treatment. He had undergone a renal transplant on May 14 in 2018 at AIIMS with Railways Minister Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at that time.
Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April last year, was back in the finance ministry on August 23, 2018. In September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition.