Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the former Prime Minister of India. He was born on 25 December 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. He died on 16 August 2018 in New Delhi. He was a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party. He received his early education from Government Higher Secondary School, Gwalior. He graduated from Victoria College. 

His father, Krishna Bihari Vajpayee was a school teacher and poet. His mother, Krishna Devi was a homemaker. 

Interesting facts about Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee adopted Namita Kaul Bhattacharya. He was never married and had no biological children of his own. 

During his college years, Atal Bihari Vajpayee started writing poems. He was the secretary of the college union in 1993 and became the Vice President in 1994. 

After completing his post-graduation in Arts, he moved to Lucknow to pursue PhD. However, he could not complete his PhD due to his involvement in journalism.

He started working as the co-editor of the newspaper Rashtradharma. 

Inspired by Baba Saheb Apte, Atal Bihar Vajpayee joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the year 1939. 

Quit India Movement

In 1942, he actively participated in the Quit India Movement. During the same time, Vajpayee too charge of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

In 1957, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for the first time from Balrampur constituency.

In 1977, Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the Foreign Affairs Minister under Morarji Desai’s government. He resigned from the post in 1979. 

Forming Bharatiya Janata Party

In 1980, he laid the foundation of Bharatiya Janata Party. He served as the President of the party for the first five years. 

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was elected as the Prime Minister of India in the year 1996. Just after 13 days of being elected, he had to resign from the post for not being able to form majority in Lok Sabha. 

In 1998, BJP won the elections again with the support of coalition government. However, the party remained in power for only 13 months. 

Prime Minister of India

After the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was successful in forming the government and Atal Bihari Vajpayee once again became the Prime Minister.

His government further strengthened bilateral relations by establishing friendly relations with Pakistan and the USA.

On 19 February 1999, a bus service was started from Delhi to Lahore under the name Sada-e-Sarhad.

Honouring a leader

In the year 1992, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was awarded with the Padma Bhushan Award. 

In 1994, he received the Best Parliamentarian Award. 

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was honoured with the Bharat Ratna Award in the year 2015. 

Some of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s famous poems are ‘A New Milestone,’ ‘Two Quatrains,’ ‘Never Place Me So High,’ ‘Who Are the Kauravas, and Who the Pandavas,’ ‘Peace of Mind,’ ‘A Battle With Death,’ and countless more.