Ananth Kumar wanted to keep his illness quiet: Tejaswini Ananth Kumar

Bengaluru: In a bid to put the rumours and speculation related to the illness of her late husband and Union Minister Ananth Kumar to rest, Mrs Tejaswini Ananth Kumar on Thursday said this was the only time he kept details of his personal life away from the public glare.

Participating in a function to pay tribute to her husband, Mrs Tejaswini said  during the Assembly election campaign earlier this year, he used to cough and after the elections when he returned to Delhi, he underwent a checkup where it was suspected that he had cancer. 

“On the same evening he talked to me and after he returned from Delhi, we went to Apollo Hospital for tests The disease was spreading so fast that by the evening, one more tumour was found. He asked the doctor only two questions: ‘How much time do I have and what work can I do?’ After getting the details he called me and his brother, Nandakumar and told us to keep it a secret. On returning home, he went to his room and sat alone for two hours. The next day, he headed to Delhi where he attended important issues like those pertaining to the no-confidence motion in parliament and the election of the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman.”

“To anyone who asked him about his health, he maintained he was all right. He did not want people to see him as seriously ill and kept the details to himself till the end,” she said.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who flew down to Bengaluru to participate in the function, recounted his association with late Kumar. 

“Our friendship went beyond a formal association,” he said and read out four lines of tribute penned by former PM late Atal Behari Vajpayee for one of his friends, which he said,  was an apt tribute one could pay to Ananth Kumar.