Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley passed away on Saturday at the age of 66. Jaitley was admitted to AIIMS in New Delhi on August 9. Arun Jaitley's unfortunate demise marks the end of an extraordinary career that has witnessed him holding incredibly important positions at various levels, both in the government and outside. Condolence wishes poured in for Jaitley from all corners. Even the cricketing fraternity came forward to offer their last respects to Arun Jaitley and among them was Virat Kohli. 

READ: Arun Jaitley Passes Away: BCCI Pays Rich Tribute

Virat Kohli shares his fond memories of Arun Jaitley

After the untimely demise of Jaitley, Virat Kohli took to social media and wrote that he was shocked and saddened to hear about the passing away of Shri Arun Jaitley Ji. Kohli then addressed Jaitley as a good person who was always willing to help others. Virat Kohli then added that the veteran BJP leader had taken out his precious time back in 2006 and had visited the Indian skipper's home to pay condolences to Kohli's late father. Virat Kohli then blessed Jaitley's soul. 

READ: Arun Jaitley Passes Away: Anil Kumble And Others Offer Last Respects

Read Virat Kohli's tweet here:

Arun Jaitley's early life and political career:

Born in Delhi on December 28, 1952, Arun Jaitley studied at the St Xavier's school and went on to graduate with a degree in commerce from the Shri Ram College of Commerce in 1973, and went on to pursue an LLB at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. At that time, he is also said to have considered becoming a Chartered Accountant.

READ: Arun Jaitley Passes Away: Cricketers And Fraternity Pay Tributes

Active in politics since his time as a student,  Arun Jaitley was a member of the ABVP, and served as the President of the Delhi University Students Union in 1974. Like a number of his contemporaries in the BJP, Jaitley was put under preventive custody for fighting the Emergency as part of the JP movement, the clampdown on him lasting 19 months. 

He rose to become the president of the Delhi ABVP and its All India Secretary, He became the president of the youth wing of the Jan Sangh which he had joined later.

Parallel to his political commitments, Jaitley also practiced law, before the Supreme Court and numerous High Courts. He was appointed ASG in the VP Singh government in 1989 and has also appeared in several corporate matters. He stopped practicing law only in June 2009 on becoming the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, he had served as the Minister for Law and Justice.

He is best known for having served as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs in the first Narendra Modi government, has also held portfolios of Defence and Information and Broadcasting. It was Jaitley who rolled out the GST in 2017 which saw India becoming a unified market for goods and services for the first time, and was also the first chairman of the GST council, being widely credited for forging consensus leading to the Constitutional amendment that eventually passed the GST Bill.

Jaitley opted out of the second Narendra Modi government, having gone to the US for two spells of treatment for a medical ailment in 2018-19. He has, however, regularly taken to Facebook and Twitter to pen blogs on various significant issues in the country.

READ: 'Arun Jaitley's Demise Is A Huge Loss For Our Nation': Anil Kapoor