Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is being treated for kidney-related complications. After undergoing dialysis at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), he returned home yesterday.

His kidney transplant has been put on hold for now.

Despite the serious medical condition, Jaitley did not stop working. It was perhaps because of the heavy workload which he bears on his shoulders.

While announcing his health conditions on April 5, Jaitley posted a tweet stating that he was being treated for kidney-related problems and certain infections that he has contracted. I am therefore currently working from controlled environment at home... he said.

Jaitley has been contributing in a major way to the BJP and the government for over two decades. His importance for the BJP and the Narendra Modi government can be gauged by discussing his contributions in five ways.

1. GOVERNMENT

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) is perhaps the most high-profile grouping in the government. While the prime minister presides over CCS, it comprises defence, finance, home and external affairs ministers.

When the council of ministers of the Narendra Modi government was sworn in on May 26, 2014, Jaitley was allotted two heavyweight departments of finance and defence. Out of the four CCS ministries, two were with him.

Later Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was sworn in as the defence minister. However, last year when Parrikar returned to Goa as chief minister, the defence portfolio returned to Jaitley till Nirmala Sitharaman was sworn in as a minister.

This is a pointer to Jaitley's importance for Modi and the BJP government.

Photo: Reuters

With Jaitley as the finance minister, the Modi government took several historic economic initiatives demonetisation and implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) being just two.

In Jaitley's stewardship, the Modi government merged the railway budget with the general budget. Moreover, the decision to advance the date of general budget to February 1 was also taken with Jaitley as finance minister.

Jaitley held an important place also for the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In the 1980s; Jaitley succeeded Ram Jethmalani as law minister.

2. LEADER OF OPPOSITION

Arun Jaitley had played one of the most significant roles as an opposition leader during the previous Congress-led UPA government.

He remained in the forefront of the BJP attack on the Manmohan Singh government in the role of leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Jaitley's long arguments with P Chidambaram, who held the finance and then the home portfolios, in the Rajya Sabha were no less than two senior lawyers slugging it out in a courtroom. Coincidentally, both are senior lawyers.

3. MODI'S MAN FRIDAY

Arun Jaitley has always been considered to be quite close to Narendra Modi. He is believed to have played a major role in the anointment of Modi first as Gujarat chief minister in 2001 and subsequently as BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2013.

When Modi found himself on a weak wicket post-Gujarat riots, Jaitley is believed to have provided the much-needed backing.

Photo: Reuters

Subsequently, when several senior BJP leaders including LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj were either opposing Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate or were not very favourably inclined towards the idea, Jaitley supported him to the hilt.

Jaitley along with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was the BJP president then, prepared the ground for Modi's elevation.

4. ELECTORAL POLITICS

Arun Jaitley has always been one of the most important strategists of the BJP. Much before BJP president Amit Shah emerged on the national scene, Jaitley was a key player in preparing the party's strategies for the Lok Sabha and the assembly elections.

Perhaps no other BJP leader would have directly overseen as many state elections as Jaitley. Whether as BJP's general secretary or a minister, he has supervised assembly elections in about one dozen states as their in charge leading the party to victory.

Photo: Reuters

He has been in charge of states such as Gujarat since 2002, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Assam and West Bengal.

5. LAWYER

Arun Jaitley's contribution to the BJP as a lawyer is also considered quite significant. He has defended the party and its leaders in various courts.

Sources close to Jaitley told IndiaToday.in that, he defended Modi in the courts in the Gujarat riots cases. He also came to Amit Shah's rescue in the controversial Sohrabuddin and Ishrat Jahan encounter killings.

Jaitley either personally appeared in the courts or supervised the battery of lawyers defending Modi and Amit Shah in the courts of law.