NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ’s memorial function turned out to be a forum of unity for all parties cutting across the political spectrum here on Monday as leaders paid tributes to the BJP stalwart who passed away on Thursday, after a prolonged illness.

“Vajpayee had brought together leaders cutting across ideological divides even in his death,” Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said pointing out that “’it was something rare.” Azad represented his party president Rahul Gandhi, who could not make it to the prayer meet.

PM Modi, Vajpayee’s partner in politics and for 65 years, L K Advani, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, BJP chief Amit Shah , NDA ally PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti , former ally National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah , CPI leader D Raja, BSP's Satish Mishra, Derek O’Brien, former JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, were among many others who attended the event and recalled their own experiences with the departed leader.

Recalling his days as parliamentary affairs minister in the P V Narasimha Rao-led government, Azad said he had to meet Vajpayee, then a key opposition leader, several times a day during Parliament's sessions and they used to have tea and meals together. “The distance we see today was not there then,” he said, apparently referring to the frosty relations between the government led by Modi and the opposition. He further asserted that Vajpayee would be remembered as one of the biggest leaders of his time who always worked for the country and its people.

PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, who led a coalition government with BJP in Jammu and Kashmir before BJP pulled out called Vajpayee "a messiah for the people of Kashmir.” She said, “He was the only Prime Minister who could understand people of Kashmir. When people talk about Kashmir they talk about trust deficit but Vajpayee had developed trust among people of Kashmir. There was a presumption that Kashmir polls are fixed as a chief minister is decided at the will of Kashmir, but Vajpayee went on to announce from Red Fort that there will be free and fair polls which happened in the state.”

NC leader Farooq Abdullah, who was an important member of the NDA led by Vajpayee and Advani said, "the real tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee will be to walk the path shown by him. He believed in inclusiveness. Nation building should be done on the lines of what Vajpayee had dreamt of… after Kargil (war) I asked him, was it required, to which Atalji replied: We shall not use it but I wanted to let the world know that we have the power.”

