Atal Bihari Vajpayee: ‘Main jee bhar jiya, main mann se marun’

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first non-Congress leader to serve a full term in power, is no more. Vajpayee breathed his last at AIIMS hospital in Delhi where he had been undergoing treatment for various ailments since June. Renowned for his powerful oratory and poetry, Vajpayee was one of the founder members of the BJP. He served as prime minister for 13 days in 1996, for 13 months in 1998-99 as the head of the NDA government and then for a full five-year term from 1999 to 2004. Vajpayee announced his retirement from electoral politics in 2005. He further withdrew from public life in 2009 after suffering a stroke.