Consummate poet, orator par excellence, amiable statesman, astute politician, foreign affairs expert, foodie and much more. BJP veteran and three-time Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee , 93, was a multi-talented politician who lived life on his own terms and left an indelible mark on Indian politics.An affable leader with friends across the ideological divide, Vajpayee was loved and admired even by political adversaries of the BJP who often said they have issues with the party but not with him. Called “teflon-coated” by some as he always came out unscathed from attacks by opponents, Vajpayee was adored as he never held any malice towards his foes.Vajpayee became Prime Minister for the first time on May 16, 1996 when then President Shankar Dayal Sharma invited BJP which had emerged as the single largest party, to form the government. Vajpayee’s tenure lasted just 13 days as no new allies came out to support the Hindutva right-wing party. But during the debate on his Trust Vote, many parties said they have no issues with Vajpayee, only with his party.He got another opportunity in 1998 when on March 19, he was sworn in as Prime Minister for the second time. After 13 months, the Vajpayee government lost the vote of confidence by one vote on April 17, 1999. This is the only government at the Centre to have lost a confidence vote. During this tenure, his dispensation carried out India’s second nuclear test at Pokharan on May 11, 1998. A spate of trade and other sanctions by US and other countries followed.Despite the nuclear test, Vajpayee reached out to Pakistan through the Lahore bus diplomacy in February, 1999 to bring peace between the two nations. However, just three months later, Pakistan attacked India in May 1999, leading to the Kargil war. India gave a decisive defeat to its neighbour after a two month battle.The Vajpayee-led NDA won 303 Lok Sabha seats in 1999 and he was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time on October 13. This term was also highly eventful.In December, 1999, an Indian Airlines plane IC-814 was hijacked over Lucknow and flown to Kandahar. The Vajpayee government had to release three dreaded terrorists, including Hafiz Saeed, to get the hostage passengers freed. Saeed later masterminded the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack in 2008.Vajpayee again made a tryst with peace when he invited Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf- who was the Army chief when the neighbouring country had begun the Kargil war- for a summit at Agra in July 2001. The summit ended in failure and Musharraf left for Islamabad at midnight in a huff.Vajpayee ran a coalition government comprising of 24 parties. His acceptance across a wide spectrum of parties and his amiable personality helped him tide over differences with allies. The Narendra Modi government is often subjected to comparisons with Vajpayee’s handling of alliance partners.Vajpayee did not have the best of relations with Modi and had asked him to follow rajdharma in the wake of the Gujarat riots of 2002. He reportedly wanted Modi to quit as chief minister but the former survived as LK Advani backed him.Described as a mask of the party by BJP general secretary Govindacharya, Vajpayee was seen as a secular, moderate leader. He distanced himself from Advani’s 1991 rath yatra and was not present at Ayodhya when the Babri mosque was razed. Later he said the mosque should not have been destroyed.The NDA government mistook the Assembly election victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh as a wave in its favour and called for early elections in May 2004. Vajpayee lost the polls as BJP’s India Shining slogan bit the dust.Once out of power, Vajpayee’s health continued to decline. In July 2008, he was brought to Parliament in an ambulance to participate in the Trust Vote of the Manmohan Singh government.Vajpayee lost his voice and suffered other health issues. In 2009, he suffered a stroke and soon lapsed in dementia.Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born on Christmas in 1924 at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. He became a RSS member at the age of 15 in 1939. Later he became a pracharak and then a founder member of BJS.Vajpayee won his first Lok Sabha election from Balrampur in 1957. He lost the Mathura seat in the same election. In all, he was elected to the Lower House ten times and twice to Rajya Sabha.An orator par excellence, he impressed first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with is speeches, leading him to remark that Vajpayee will one day become PM . Vajpayee also won accolades later for addressing the UN General Assembly in Hindi in 1777, the same year that he became External Affairs Minister in the Morarji Desai government.Vajpayee regaled his audience with his wit and poetry. His poems brim with optimism and give hope to his followers.He also edited RSS publications Panchajanya, and dailies Veer Arjun, Rashtradharma and Swadesh.The Narendra Modi government announced the Bharat Ratna for Vajpayee on his birthday in 2014. Earlier, in 1992 he had been conferred the Padma Vibhushan.The former Prime Minister was also a great foodie and would relish delicacies- especially sweets- even in his 80s. He never married but has a foster daughter. Vajpayee famously said he was a “Kunwara (single) but not a brahmachari (celibate)”.