The 61-year-old outgoing Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha is the most urbane face of the BJP with a formidable clout in the higher echelons of the media, judiciary, bureaucracy and big business. At once sharp and affable, Jaitley is among the most popular clutch of leaders groomed by L. K. Advani in the 1990s along with Sushma Swaraj and Pramod Mahajan.

After Mahajan passed away, Jaitley acquired the mantle of the BJP’s chief strategist managing several assembly and the 2009 general elections for the party. Among the few friends Prime Minister Narendra Modi has in Delhi, Jaitley was his staunch supporter even when the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, opposed him in the post-2002 riots scenario.

Along with Advani, Jaitley pre-empted Vajpayee’s move to edge Modi out in a tension-filled meeting of the party’s national executive in April 2002. Jaitley flew to Gujarat and travelled with Modi to the national executive meeting where, before Vajpayee could proceed, Modi offered to quit followed by a loud chorus of the entire national executive rejecting the resignation.

This long-standing understanding between Jaitley and the Prime Minister is among the various other reasons for the former’s loss in Amritsar not having affected his prospects in the Cabinet.

Of course, his unmatched ability for understanding and shaping policy places him well ahead of his contemporaries. A product of the anti-Emergency movement while he was studying in the Sri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and later law at Delhi University, Jaitley is a family man with possibly the biggest circle of friends in Delhi than any other BJP leader. Undoubtedly, next to the PM, Jaitley is the most high-profile leader in the Cabinet.

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