Veteran Indian female politician Sushma Swaraj has died

Sushma Swaraj had been beset by poor health but served as foreign minister for five years until Narendra Modi replaced her with S. Jaishankar during a cabinet shuffle in May. (Reuters)

India’s former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, one of her country’s best-known female politicians, has died, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday.

Swaraj had been beset by poor health but served as foreign minister for five years until Modi replaced her with S. Jaishankar during a cabinet shuffle in May.

“A glorious chapter in Indian politics comes to an end,” Modi wrote on Twitter.

“India grieves the demise of a remarkable leader who devoted her life to public service and bettering lives of the poor. Sushma Swaraj Ji was one of her kind, who was a source of inspiration,” he said, calling her death “a personal loss.”

The Press Trust of India said Swaraj, 67, died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) late Tuesday after a heart attack.
In 2016 she underwent a kidney transplant.

Swaraj was the most senior female leader of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).