The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi is likely to issue its first bulletin on BJP veteran and former finance minister Arun Jaitley's health condition on Friday, ever since he has been admitted to the hospital following complaints of breathlessness on August 9. According to the sources, Jaitley, 66, is critical and a multidisciplinary team of doctors is supervising his treatment.
Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovind visited AIIMS to enquire about the health condition of the former finance minister, who is admitted in the ICU and is put on life support system. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey were also present during president's visit to the hospital.
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There are also reports that Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is currently attending a rally in Haryana’s Jind, will pay a visit to the ailing BJP leader in late Friday evening. Last Saturday, after Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu visited AIIMS to enquire about Jaitley's health, his office had said that the former minister is responding to treatment.
In May this year, Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS for treatment. Jaitley, a lawyer by profession, had been an important part in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet in in the BJP government's first term. He held the finance and defence portfolios, and often acted as the chief troubleshooter of the government.
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Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha election presumably because of his ill-health. He had undergone a renal transplant on May 14 last year 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.