Former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee passes away

New Delhi, Aug 16 (KNB): Former Prime Minister of India and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee breathed his last at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) New Delhi after he was put on ventilator support last week.
Born on 25th December 1924 in Gwalior, Bihari served thrice served as the Prime Minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, for a period of eleven months from 1998 to 1999, and then for a full term from 1999 to 2004.



When the Janata government collapsed, Vajpayee restructured the Jana Sangh into the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980. He was the first Indian prime minister not belonging to the Indian National Congress to serve a full five-year term. At age 93, Vajpayee is currently the oldest living former Indian Prime Minister.
He was conferred India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the President of India in 2014. It was declared by the Modi government in 2014 that Vajpayee’s birthday, 25 December, would be marked as Good Governance Day.
Besides, PM Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Nation Conference patron Dr Farooq Abdullah a number of socio-political leaders visited AIIMS during the last two days. (KNB)