Delhi Loses Three Former Chief Ministers In Less Than A Year 2019

By FnF Correspondent | PUBLISHED: 07, Aug 2019, 11:18 am IST | UPDATED: 07, Aug 2019, 11:18 am IST

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.