Despite political knowhow, popular victory eluded Jaitley for 45 years

Arun Jaitley, who was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and the first term of the Modi government, never won a popular election in his over four decades of a political career.

The only time he tried his luck at the hustings was in Amritsar in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which he lost to Capt Amarinder Singh of the Congress, who later went on to become the Chief Minister of Punjab.

Jaitley won the first election he contested as a candidate of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) to become the President of the Delhi University Students' Union in 1974.

Jaitley joined the BJP in 1980 and became a member of its National Executive in 1991. In October 1999, he was appointed Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge) in the Vajpayee government. He was also given the new portfolio of Minister of State for Disinvestment (Independent Charge).

In April 2000, Jaitley was for the first time elected to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat, from where he was re-elected twice more in 2006 and 2012. 

In 2014, Jaitley fought the Lok Sabha elections from the Amritsar seat as the party candidate, replacing cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, against Congress' Amarinder Singh. 

Jaitley lost the only general election he would ever fight He chose not to contest in the 2019 general elections because of failing health, a reason which he also cited to keep away from the second government of Modi.