Mayawati, Nitish Kumar Among Political Bigwigs in AIIMS as Arun Jaitley Continues to Remain Critical

New Delhi: As senior BJP leader and former finance minister Arun Jaitley continues to remain critical at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, political bigwigs made beeline at the hospital to visit him.

Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Abhishek Manu Singhvi visited the hospital in Delhi to enquire about the ailing leader’s health. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and BSP supremo Mayawati also visited Jaitley at the hospital.

Others who visited Jaitley included Union minister Piyush Goyal, BJP's Satish Upadhyay and Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa.

"I visited AIIMS today to enquire about the health condition of former finance and defence minister, and senior BJP leader Shri Arun Jaitley. I met his family and consoled them and prayed to the almighty that he recovers soon," Mayawati tweeted at 01.06 pm on Saturday.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had visited AIIMS on Friday to check on the leader's health.

Earlier, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh also visited the hospital.

Late on Friday, home minister Amit Shah and health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan rushed to the hospital in view of Jaitley's critical condition.

However, the AIIMS has not issued any bulletin on Jaitley's health since he was admitted on Friday.

Shah and Vardhan along with PM Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS for Health Ashwini Choubey, BJP working president JP Nadda and Loktantrik Janata Dal chief Sharad Yadav had also checked on Jaitley last week.

As the finance minister during NDA’s previous tenure, Jaitley had been an important part in Narendra Modi's Cabinet.

Jaitley did not contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections presumably because of his ill-health.

He had undergone renal transplant on May 14 last year with Piyush Goyal filling in for him in the finance ministry at that time. Jaitley, who had stopped attending office since early April 2018, 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.

(With PTI inputs)