Arun Jaitley's meteoric rise in politics

Arun Jaitley, an acclaimed lawyer, and among the most prominent faces of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had established himself as one of the most articulate leaders of the party. Jaitley passed away following a prolonged illness at AIIMS.

ARUN JAITLEY (1952- 2019)

Among the most prominent faces of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Arun Jaitley, an acclaimed lawyer, had established himself as one of the most articulate leaders of the party.

EARLY DAYS AND ENTRY INTO POLITICS:

Born in December 28, 1952 in New Delhi to Maharaj Kishen Jaitley and Ratan Prabha Jaitley, he graduated from Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi and later pursued law at Delhi University.

He took interest in politics from his student days and was associated with the ABVP, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

He was president of the Delhi University Students Union in 1974 and took part in the movement against corruption led by Jayaprakash Narayan.During the Emergency (1975-77) rule of Indira Gandhi, Jaitley was jailed for its entire duration -- 19 months.

LAW PRACTICE AND APPOINTMENT AS ASG:

He practised law in the Supreme Court and several high courts from 1977 and was designated a Senior Advocate in 1989. He became the additional solicitor general during the VP Singh government. During this time he was involved in some investigations into the Bofors scandal.

As a lawyer, Jaitley represented Pepsi in a high profile Supreme Court case against Coca Cola in 2002. However, he stopped practising law from 2009.

BJP CHAPTER PART 1:

He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party after its formation in 1980, and has been a member of the national executive of the party since 1991. He became the partyspokesperson in 1999 just before the General elections.

He was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government that came into power in 1999 and held various portfolios.

Initially, he was appointed Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge). He was also appointed Minister of State for Disinvestment (Independent Charge), a new ministry created for the first time to give effect to the policy of disinvestments.

He later also took additional charge of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs in the year 2000. Later in the same year, he became a Cabinet Minister and simultaneously took charge of the Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs and Shipping.

BJP CHAPTER PART 2:

After the BJP-led government was voted out in 2004, Jaitley returned to serving the party organisation and became a general secretary.

A member of the party's top decision making bodies, he was the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in the last five years of UPA II.

Then a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, he was among the party leaders who strongly backed the decision to name Modi as the head of the campaign committee before the 2014 elections, which scripted a turnaround in India's politics.

BJP CHAPTER PART 3 (MODI YEARS):

Jaitley was among the BJP leaders who used social media to increase their outreach to people.

Though he unsuccessfully ran for a seat from Punjab in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, following the landslide victory of the BJP, he was inducted into the cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

His most celebrated role was that of the Union Finance Minister, as he presented the Union Budget five times.

He also had brief stints as Defence Minster and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

During this time, he switched his role in the Rajya Sabha from Leader of Opposition to Leader of the House.

LOVE FOR CRICKET:

A fond lover of cricket, Jaitley is a former vice president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. He had also served as the president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association.

PERSONAL LIFE:

In 1982, Jaitley got married to Sangeeta Jaitley, the daughter of former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Giridhar Lal Dogra. The couple has two children, Sonali Jaitley and Rohan Jaitley - both lawyers.