Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Vajpayee remained a bachelor all his life. He had adopted Namita Bhattacharya, the daughter of BN Kaul and Rajkumari Kaul, and was very close to his friends and relatives.

He had a deep love for Hindi and wrote several poems in the language.

He had a long history of illness. He underwent knee replacement surgery in 2001. A stroke in the year 2009 impaired his speech. In the last few years of his life, he was largely confined to a wheelchair and failed to recognise people. He suffered from dementia and diabetes. He had not attended any public event in the last few years of his life.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born into a middle-class family in Gwalior. His father was Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, a school teacher and poet, and his mother was Krishna Devi.

He attended the Saraswati Shishu Mandir and later went to Victoria College from where he graduated with distinction in Hindi, English and Sanskrit.

He enrolled at DAV College, Kanpur to complete his post graduation and earned his M.A. in Political science.

He was a patriot at heart and participated in India’s struggle for freedom even as a student and edited several nationalist Hindi newspapers.

He became associated with the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), a right-wing political party founded by Syama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951. He became a loyal follower of Mookerjee and supported him during his fast-unto-death in Kashmir in 1954.

Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from Balrampur (U.P.) in 1957. He proved himself to be an excellent orator and gave powerful speeches.

He was made the national president of the Jana Sangh in 1968 after the death of Deendayal Upadhyaya. Over the next few years he worked tirelessly with Nanaji Deshmukh, Balraj Madhok and Lal Krishna Advani to make the Jana Sangh a prominent presence in Indian politics.

In 1977, the BJS was united with the Bharatiya Lok Dal and the Socialist Party to form the Janata Party. After the victory of the Janata Party in the general elections, Vajpayee became the Minister of External Affairs in Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s government.

The Janata Party was dissolved following Morarji Desai’s resignation as Prime Minister in 1979. Vajpayee, in collaboration with Lal Krishna Advani and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat formed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980 and became the party’s first president.

The BJP emerged the single largest party in Lok Sabha in the 1996 general elections. Vajpayee was sworn in as the Prime Minister in May 1996. However, he resigned after 13 days since BJP could not obtain a majority.

He was again sworn in as the Prime Minister in 1998 after BJP emerged as the single largest party and formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with other political parties. This government lasted for a little over a year when fresh elections were held.

It was during his tenure that India conducted underground nuclear tests in Pokhran in May 1998, just a month after the government came into power. These tests were regarded a national milestone.

The Kargil War between India and Pakistan took place between May and July 1999. By the end of the war, the Indian Army and Air force had recaptured the areas infiltrated by the Pakistani militants. The Kargil victory cemented the reputation of Vajpayee as a strong and able leader of the nation.

The BJP-led NDA again emerged as the largest political alliance in the 1999 general elections in the wake of the Kargil War victory. Vajpayee was made the Prime Minister for the third time in October 1999.