Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician, statesman, and author. He was the Prime Minister of India for three terms- for 13 days in 1996, later for 13 months from 1998 to 1999, and then for a full term from 1999 to 2004. Vajpayee was the first Indian prime minister who was not from the Indian National Congress party to serve a full term of five years in the office.

He was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was elected to the Lok Sabha ten times and two times to the Rajya Sabha. In 1951, Vajpayee was taken by the RSS, to work for the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Bharatiya Jana Sangh was a Hindu right-wing political party associated with the RSS, appointed as a national secretary of the party in charge of the Northern region, based in Delhi. Vajpayee served as the president from 1968 to 1972, after the death of Deendayal Upadhyaya.

In 1977, Bharatiya Jana Sangh along with several others, came together and formed the Janata Party. After Desai retired in 1979, the Janata Party collapsed. The members of Janata party then formed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980, with Vajpayee as its first president. He served a full term as Prime Minister from 1999 to 2014.

With Vajpayee as Prime minister, India carried out the Pokhran-II nuclear tests. On May 26, 1999, India launched Operation Vijay. With over 500 Indian soldiers and around 600-4,000 Pakistani militants killed in the three-month-long Kargil War, both nations served severe damage. India recaptured around 70% of the territory.

After the Kargil war, Vajpayee tried to restore relations with Pakistan and so invited Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Agra, India for a summit. Until 2009, he served as the Member of Parliament for Lucknow. In 2009, he retired from politics due to health concerns. In 2014, Narendra Modi Born on September 17, 1950, in Mehsana, Gujarat, N >> Read More... declared that Vajpayee's birthday, 25 December, would be marked as Good Governance Day.

He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2015 by Pranab Mukherjee Bio coming soon... >> Read More... . At the age of 93, Vajpayee was admitted to AIIMS in critical condition following a kidney infection. He was officially declared dead there at IST 17:05 on 16 August 2018.