Atal Bihari Vajpayee no more: Former Prime Minister passes away at 93 Former Prime Minister and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one of India's most charismatic leaders, died here Thursday following prolonged illness, AIIMS hospital announced. Vajpayee breathed his last at 05:05 PM. He was 93.

7 things to know about Atal Bihari Vajpayee







Autoplay Autoplay 1 of 7 Teacher's son Born in a humble school teacher's family on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, Vajpayee entered politics during the Quit India movement in 1942. He did his graduation and post graduation in Political Science from Victoria College in Gwalior. 13 day PM He became the Prime Minister for the first time on May 16, 1996 when then President Shankar Dayal Sharma invited BJP, which was the single largest party, to form the government. The stint, however, lasted only for 13 days as no new allies came out to support the BJP.

2nd time unlucky On March 19, Vajpayee 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. The Kargil ghost His tenure saw 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. However, just three months later, Pakistan attacked India in May 1999, leading to the Kargil war. The Musharraf summit 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. 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.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee died today in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi after a long illness. The 93-year-old BJP leader was s uffering from multiple ailments and was admitted to AIIMS in June. He was put on life support system by the doctors after his condition became critical in the last 24 hours.He was a diabetic and had only one functional kidney. He suffered a stroke in 2009 that weakened his cognitive abilities. Subsequently, he developed dementia.Vajpayee was admitted to the AIIMS on June 11 with kidney tract infection, chest congestion, urinary tract infection and low urine output.Three-time Prime Minister, Vajpayee was the first and the only non-Congress Prime Minister to serve a full five-year term from 1999 to 2004; and for short periods of 13 days in 1996 and 13 months in 1998. Vajpayee was elected to Lok Sabha from Lucknow in 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004.Born in the family of a humble school teacher on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, Vajpayee entered politics during the Quit India movement in 1942. He did his graduation and post graduation in Political Science from Victoria College in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh and at the DAV College in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, where he first contested - and lost - an election.He was first elected to Parliament in 1962 as a member of Rajya Sabha. In 1971, he won his first Lok Sabha seat. He was elected to the Lok Sabha seven times and twice to the Rajya Sabha.He was the first external affairs minister to deliver a speech in the UN Assembly in Hindi.Apart from politician with great oratory skills, Vajpayee was also an acclaimed writer who wrote several poems.He was awarded India's highest civilian honor Bharat Ratna in 2015 on his birthday. His birthday, December 25, was also declared as the Good Governance Day by Narendra Modi government.The BJP stalwart slowly withdrew from public life due to illness and remained confined to his residence for many years.