Newsmaker

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on Thursday at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) following a prolonged illness. He was 93.

"It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of former Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee at 05:05pm on 16.08.2018. Shri Vajpayee was admitted in AIIMS on 11.06.2018 and was stable in the last 9 weeks under the care of a team of AIIMS doctors. Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support systems. Despite the best of efforts, we have lost him today. We join the nation in deeply mourning this great loss," Dr (Prof) Aarti Vij, chairperson media and protocol division of AIIMS said in a press statement while announcing the demise of the leader.

The veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader was admitted to AIIMS on June 11 with complications arising out of Urinary Tract Infection, low urine output and chest congestion. He was on life support since Wednesday morning after his condition deteriorated.

Vajpayee, who led the National Democratic Alliance government from 1998-2004, was the first ever person from the BJP to have become the nation's Prime Minister. Vajpayee served as Prime Minister thrice -- briefly in 1996, and then for two terms between 1998 and 2004.

He had announced his retirement from electoral politics in 2005 and withdrew further from public life in 2009 after suffering a stroke that weakened his cognitive abilities. Subsequently, he developed dementia.

Born in Gwalior on December 25, 1924, Vajpayee joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1939, and in 1951, was seconded to its political wing, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. He steadily rose in its hierarchy and became its national president in 1968.

Imprisoned along with other opposition leaders during the Emergency (1975-77), he merged the Jana Sangh into the newly-formed Janata Party to fashion a common front against the Congress in the 1977 elections. He subsequently served as Minister of External Affairs in the Morarji Desai government.

After the Janata Party's collapse, Vajpayee, along with long-time associate LK Advani and others, set up the BJP in 1980.

A parliamentarian for over four decades, he was conferred the Bharat Ratna in 2015.

His birthday, which falls on December 25, is celebrated as 'Good Governance Day' by the BJP. He was in 2014 decorated with Bharat Ratna.