31 Facts About Atal Bihari Vajpayee

1. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was officially declared dead there at 5:05 pm IST on 16 August 2018 at the age of 93.

2. Atal Bihari Vajpayee adopted and raised Namita Bhattacharya as his own child, the daughter of longtime friend Rajkumari Kaul and BN Kaul.

3. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was hospitalised at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi for a chest infection and fever on 6 February 2009.

4. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was referred to as the Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a speech in the Rajya Sabha, a reference to a mythological figure in the Hindu epic Mahabharata who was held in respect by two warring sides.

5. In December 2005, Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced his retirement from active politics, declaring that he would not contest in the next general election.

6. Atal Bihari Vajpayee faced stiff opposition from other equally strong organisations in the Sangh Parivar such as the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.

7. Atal Bihari Vajpayee ordered Indian troops to mobilise for war, leading to an estimated 500,000 to 750,000 Indian soldiers positioned along the international border between India and Pakistan.

8. Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated talks with Pakistan, and invited Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Agra for a joint summit, the Agra summit.

9. On 13 October 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee took oath as Prime Minister of India for the third time.

10. In late 1998 and early 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee began a push for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan.

11. Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigned after 13 days when it became clear that he did not have enough support to form a government.

12. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as the 10th Prime Minister of India, but the BJP failed to muster a majority among members of the Lok Sabha.

13. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1986 from Madhya Pradesh, and was briefly the leader of the BJP in parliament.

14. Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as the Minister of External Affairs, or foreign minister, in Desai's cabinet.

15. In 1975, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was arrested along with several other opposition leaders during the Internal Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress party.

16. Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the national president of the Jana Sangh in 1968, running the party along with Nanaji Deshmukh, Balraj Madhok, and L K Advani.

17. In 1954, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was with Mukherjee when the latter went on a hunger strike in Kashmir to protest the perceived inferior treatment of non-Kashmiri Indian visitors to the state.

18. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was appointed as a national secretary of the party in charge of the Northern region, based in Delhi.

19. In 1951, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was seconded by the RSS, along with Deendayal Upadhyaya, to work for the newly formed Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a Hindu right-wing political party associated with the RSS.

20. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was released after giving a written undertaking stating that while he was a part of the crowd, he did not participate in the militant events in Bateshwar on 27 August 1942.

21. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sent as a vistarak, a probationary pracharak, to Uttar Pradesh and quickly began working for the newspapers of Deendayal Upadhyaya, Rashtradharma, Panchjanya (a Hindi weekly) and the dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun.

22. Atal Bihari Vajpayee gave up studying law due to the partition riots.

23. Atal Bihari Vajpayee joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a swayamsevak, or volunteer, in 1939.

24. Atal Bihari Vajpayee said "But I learned a lesson that changed my life.

25. Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke about his 'lifechanging moment' at a public rally on the 1996 Lok Sabha election trail.

26. Atal Bihari Vajpayee died on 16 August 2018 due to age-related illness.

27. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was conferred India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee in 2015.

28. Atal Bihari Vajpayee sought to improve diplomatic relations with Pakistan, travelling to Lahore by bus to meet with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

29. Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigned in 1979, and the Janata alliance collapsed soon after.

30. Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as the Member of Parliament for Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh until 2009 when he retired from active politics due to health concerns.

31. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a member of the Indian Parliament for over four decades, having been elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house, ten times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house.