Face of Nation : Sushma Swaraj, former foreign minister and one of the BJP’s tallest leaders, is dead, Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences said late this evening. Ms Swaraj was rushed to the hospital by her family sometime after 9 pm today when she was taken ill.
A number of her party colleagues and ministers have already reached AIIMS. Among the first to arrive were Nitin Gadkari, Dr Harshvardhan, Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani.
The 67-year-old had not been keeping well lately, which is why she had not contested the recently held Lok Sabha election and opted out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new government.
Earlier this evening, Ms Swaraj had tweeted congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill in parliament.
“A glorious chapter in Indian politics comes to an end. India grieves the demise of a remarkable leader who devoted her life to public service and bettering lives of the poor. Sushma Swaraj Ji was one of her kind, who was a source of inspiration for crores of people,” one of his tweets read.
The same month, she had tweeted to dispel rumours that she had been appointed Governor of Andhra Pradesh. Her clarification came after Union Minister Harsh Vardhan triggered speculation when he congratulated her in a tweet.
A nine-time parliamentarian followed by nearly 12.8 million people on Twitter, Sushma Swaraj became the youngest minister of a state back in 1977.
A Cabinet minister in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Swaraj had held the portfolios of Health and Family Welfare, Information and Broadcasting at different junctures. She was the Chief Minister of Delhi from October 13, 1998 to December 3, 1998.
In November 2018, Sushma Swaraj had announced that she would not contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 due to health reasons.
