Sushma Swaraj no more

Sushma Swaraj, former foreign minister of India and one of the BJP’s tallest leaders who was respected across party lines, is dead, Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences said yesterday evening.

A number of her party colleagues and ministers have already reached the hospital. Among the first to arrive were Nitin Gadkari, Dr Harshvardhan, Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani.

Swaraj was rushed to the hospital by her family sometime after 9:00pm yesterday when she was taken ill.

The 67-year-old had not been keeping well lately, which is why she had not contested the recently held Lok Sabha election and opted out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new government. In June, she had moved out of her official residence.

Earlier this evening, Swaraj had tweeted congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill in parliament.