Remembering former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his 99th birth anniversary
(Express Archive)
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away in 2018, would have entered the centenary year of his birth on this day.
(Express Archive)
Vajpayee was born in the erstwhile princely state of Gwalior on Dec 25, 1924, and would rise to become one of the most prominent political leaders of Independent India.
(Express Archive)
He became PM twice in his political career - for a short while in 1996, and then again in 1999 as the head of the then new coalition govt, the National Democratic Alliance.
(Express Archive)
As such, Vajpayee was the second political leader to have assumed the prime ministerial role twice after his 1999 victory; Prime Minister Nehru being the first.
(Express Archive)
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's political career of four decades saw him elected to the Lok Sabha nine times, and the Rajya Sabha twice.
(Express Archive)
Moreover, other than being a PM for the country, he also served as the Foreign Minister, Leader of Opposition, and the Chairperson of several Standing Committees of the Parliament.
(Express Archive)
A part of 1942's Quit India Movement which ensured the end of the British Raj, Vajpayee's political curiosity led him to pursue political science and law in college.
(Express Archive)
After graduation, he worked as a journalist, though the stint was short. His interests drew him elsewhere, and in 1951, he joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh - forerunner to today's BJP.
(Express Archive)
Vajpayee was a founder-member to the Bharatiya Janata Party and took up its presidential role for six years from 1980 to 1986.
(Express Archive)
Also a poet and writer, he has multiple published works which include Meri Sansadiya Yatra and Four Decades in Parliament which contain his speeches in three volumes.
(Express Archive)