Delhi Loses Three Former Chief Ministers In Less Than A Year

Three-time chief minister and veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit passed away in July this year due to cardiac arrest.

New Delhi: With Sushma Swaraj's demise on Tuesday night, the national capital has lost three former chief ministers in less than a year. Swaraj, who was the chief minister of Delhi for a brief period from October-December 1998, passed away on Tuesday night due to cardiac arrest. Three-time chief minister and veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit passed away in July this year due to cardiac arrest. Diskhit and Swaraj died within a month. Madan Lal Khurana, who was the chief minister from 1993-96, also passed away in October last year. Who Was Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj?

• Swaraj, a law graduate who practised in the Supreme Court, was elected seven times as a member of Parliament and three times as a member of the legislative assembly.
• She was married to Swaraj Kaushal, a designated senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India who served as Governor of Mizoram from 1990 to 1993. Kaushal was also a Member of Parliament from 1998 to 2004.
• She started her political life with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS' student wing, and later joined the BJP.
• She was the Information and Broadcasting Minister in the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1996 and got the Cabinet portfolio again after he led the BJP to power in 1998.
• Always eager to take on a challenge, Swaraj contested against the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Bellary in 1999 Lok Sabha polls. Though she fell short of votes, she grew in stature.
• Long seen as a protege of veteran BJP leader L K Advani, she also was the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha between 2009-14.
• Swaraj had many firsts to her credit such as being the youngest cabinet minister in the Haryana government, first woman chief minister of Delhi and the first woman spokesperson for a national political party in the country.
• Swaraj was external affairs minister from 2014 to 2019.