New Delhi: Former finance minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley passed away Saturday after battling a two-year-long illness. Jaitley was being treated by a team of multidisciplinary senior doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.
The senior BJP leader was admitted to AIIMS on 9 August after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness, and was put under observation in the ICU.
A team of doctors, including endocrinologists, cardiologists and nephrologists, was monitoring his condition.
A lawyer by training, Jaitley had played a crucial role in Narendra Modi’s cabinet during his first tenure as prime minister. He held finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government.
Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but had lost his maiden general election in 2014.
The senior leader had undergone renal transplant on 14 May last year with Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry. Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April 2018, was back in the finance ministry on 23 August 2018.
In September 2014, he underwent bariatric surgery to correct the weight he had gained because of a long-standing diabetic condition.
With PTI inputs