Published On : Sat, Aug 17th, 2019

Former finance minister Arun Jaitley remains critical, on life support at AIIMS Delhi

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New Delhi: Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley remained in critical condition and was put on life support as a host of dignitaries, including President Ram Nath Kovind, Home Minister Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, among others, visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Friday to enquire about his health.

While the President visited Jaitley around noon, Shah and Adityanath arrived late last night. Their visits came amid rising concerns over the health of the senior BJP leader, who was a ‘chief troubleshooter’ in the first Narendra Modi government. He was also given additional charge of the Defence Ministry, for a short period of time, during the stint.

The 66-year-old Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS on August 9 after he complained of breathlessness and restlessness. The hospital has not issued any health bulletin on him since the day he was admitted.

Jaitley, a lawyer by profession, is a diabetic and has faced several health issues in recent past. He was also hospitalised in May and had to skip interim budget in February as he was recovering in the US after undergoing surgery for soft tissue cancer in New York, in January.

He also took a break from the Finance Ministry last May after undergoing renal transplant at AIIMS. On both occasions, Union Minister Piyush Goyal was given interim charge of the ministry.

Jaitley did not contest the Lok Sabha elections and later requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to not include him in the government after his re-election.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla were among those to have called upon Jaitley last week.