'Jaitley could have been in Modi 2.0 Cabinet but never gave false hope'

Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan on Sunday paid homage to finance minister Arun Jaitley and said he could have acquired a position in Prime minister Narendra Modi 2.0 Cabinet but he never gave false hope to the government.

"Most of the politicians hide their illness but he never did. He could have acquired a good position in 2019 Cabinet but he did not give any false hopes to the government," Soundararajan said while speaking to media persons after paying tributes to the late leader at his residence.

Remembering Jaitley as a pillar of the BJP and the government, she said: "Jaitley ji's tweets and writings are guidelines for us. He was an approachable leader and when we worked with him his doors were always open. His knowledge was useful to society."

BJP leader and former Union Minister Sakshi Maharaj said Jaitley's demise comes at a time when the party was still trying to overcome the demise of ex-foreign minister Sushma Swaraj.

"We were still overcoming the demise of Sushma Swaraj and now we lost another key member," he said, adding that "this void cannot be replaced".

The former finance minister passed away at the age of 66 at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, New Delhi on Saturday. He was admitted to the AIIMS earlier this month after he complained of restlessness. He was placed under observation at the hospital's Cardio Neuro Centre.