Former external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj passes away at 67

Former external affairs minister and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj passed away on Tuesday night in New Delhi's AIIMS.

Swaraj suffered a cardiac arrest. She was administered CPR but did not respond, according to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

A senior BJP leader, Swaraj had been a seven-time Member of Parliament (MP) and a three-time MLA.

Swaraj had also served as the information and broadcasting ministry under Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

She was also the Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs from January 2003 until May 2004. Swaraj was also the Leader of Opposition in the for the 15th Lok Sabha.

She was appointed as the minister of external affairs in 2014 when BJP won the general elections. She didn't contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls on health ground.

Hours before her death, Swaraj congratulated the central government for its historic decision to abrogate Article 370.

“Narendra Modi ji - Thank you Prime Minister. Thank you very much. I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime,” she said in her tweet.

Born on February 14, 1953, she was a former Supreme Court lawyer. 

In 2014, Swaraj won from Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh for the second term.