This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The three-time Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a Hindu nationalist who set off a nuclear arms race with Pakistan but later reached across the border to begin a groundbreaking peace process, has died aged 93.

His death was announced on Thursday by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital, where Vajpayee had been undergoing treatment for more than two months for a kidney infection and chest congestion.

Vajpayee led the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), whose current leader, the prime minister, Narendra Modi, called his predecessor’s death an “irreplaceable loss”.

The statesman had battled poor health for years, suffering a stroke in 2009, but his condition deteriorated sharply in recent days, with doctors placing him on life support.

“Atal Ji’s passing away is a personal and irreplaceable loss for me,” Modi said in a tweet on Thursday, using a Hindi-language honorific.

“It was Atal Ji’s exemplary leadership that set the foundations for a strong, prosperous and inclusive India in the 21st century.

“It was due to the perseverance and struggles of Atal Ji that the BJP was built brick by brick.”

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The former journalist and poet-turned-politician was one of the few opposition lawmakers inside parliament when India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, still held office. Nehru was PM from 1947 until his death in 1964.

Vajpayee’s more than five-decade-long career peaked in the 1990s, when his masterful oratory attracted tens of thousands to his rallies across the country.

He became India’s first non-Congress party prime minister to complete an entire term in office, as head of a BJP-led ruling alliance between March 1998 and May 2004.

In 1998 he ordered nuclear tests, stoking fears of atomic war between India and Pakistan, then, a few years later, he made the first moves toward peace.

In early 1999, Vajpayee embarked on a historic bus ride to the Pakistani city of Lahore and met then-premier Nawaz Sharif in a bid to ease tensions. But his peacemaker image was shattered later that year when Pakistan-backed forces pressed over the disputed Kashmir border, sparking a deadly conflict.

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Despite the lingering tensions between the neighbours, Imran Khan, due to take the oath as Pakistan’s next prime minister on Saturday, hailed Vajpayee as “a towering figure” in a statement posted on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party’s official Twitter page.

“Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s efforts to improve Pakistan-India ties will always be remembered,” Khan said. “It is through the establishment of peace that we can truly honour … [his] legacy.”

Vajpayee was ousted as PM in 2004 elections by the Congress party led by Manmohan Singh, who said on Thursday: “Shri Vajpayee Ji stood among the tallest leaders of modern India, who spent his whole life serving our great country. His services to our nation will be remembered for a long time to come.”

The current Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, said millions “loved and respected” Vajpayee. “Today India lost a great son. We will miss him,” Gandhi tweeted.