Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley passed away at AIIMS Hospital on Saturday, 24th August.
Jaitley was admitted to Delhi’s AIIMS on August 9 after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness.
He stepped down in January this year due to ill health before Lok Sabha elections that returned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power.
His health worsened after he underwent a kidney transplant in May last year. He had to skip the presentation of the interim budget on February 2018 when he was in hospital in the United States for cancer treatment. He also had triple bypass heart surgery when he was 52.
A lawyer by profession, Arun Jaitley was among the leaders who were jailed by the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency. He was a student leader at the time.
After being released from jail, Arun Jaitley joined active politics as a member of the Jan Sangh and rose through the ranks of the organisation, which later became the BJP.
A lawyer by profession, Arun Jaitley also served on the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet. Between 2009 and 2014, when the BJP sat in the Opposition benches, Arun Jaitley served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
Delhi: Former Union Minister and Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley passes away at AIIMS. pic.twitter.com/pmr4xiyqYV
— ANI (@ANI) August 24, 2019
Content courtesy: Business Standards
