NEW DELHI: Former Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley continued to remain in a critical condition and was put on life support at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Friday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan reached AIIMS to inquire about the ailing senior BJP leader's health condition around 11 PM.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too reached AIIMS to inquire about Jaitley's health.
Earlier, President Ram Nath Kovind, Dr Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State (MoS) for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey had visited him at the hospital here.
Soon after he was admitted on August 9, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Dr Harsh Vardhan also visited Jaitley at the hospital.
Jaitley was admitted in the country’s premier medical institution on August 9 morning and was put on ventilator late in the night.
He has since been undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU). According to a release by media and protocol division of AIIMS on the same day, the former minister is under the supervision of a team comprising multidisciplinary doctors, “At present, he is haemodynamically stable”. The hospital has not issued any medical bulletin after August 9 on Jaitley's health.
The 66-year-old leader, who held several important portfolios in Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi governments, has not been keeping well for some time. He did not even contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election citing health reasons. In February, Piyush Goyal had to present the interim budget as Jaitley was in the US for treatment.
After NDA government retained power after the Lok Sabha elections, Jaitley wrote to Prime Minister Modi, saying he would not take up any responsibility/portfolio in the government due to his deteriorating health condition.
A lawyer by profession, Jaitley has been one of the most important leaders in the Modi Cabinet from 2014 to 2019 and often acted as the chief troubleshooter for the government.
