Career timeline of Arun Jaitley, PM Modi's go-to man in New Delhi

With Jaitley as FM, the Modi govt took several key decisions like demonetisation, GST, merger of rail budget with general budget, and advancement of general budget date to February 1

A senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Arun Jaitley was Union finance minister in the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government’s first term in power at the Centre. He also held the defence portfolio for a while. 

Jaitley, who had been ailing the past few years and was admitted to New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on August 9, breathed his last on August 24 at age 66. 

Adept at working the levers of power, he has been Modi’s go-to man in New Delhi since the late 1990s, before deteriorating health put an end to his