Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an iconic leader as well as the founder of the current ruling party i.e. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is well known for his patience, liberalism and intelligence. He had a normal struggling life and his story of success is an inspiration for many. His hard work and determination led him to a successful leader.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a true legend born on an auspicious day of Christmas i.e. 25th December 1924 is a great political leader until today. His birthplace is Gwalior and was born into a middle-class Brahmin family to Krishna Devi and Krishna Bihari Vajpayee. He has completed his schooling at the Saraswati Shishu Mandir (Gorkhi Bara, Gwalior). He graduated from Gwalior's Victoria College which is now well known as Laxmi Bai College and also had a distinction in Hindi, English and Sanskrit. He had also done his post-graduation from DAV College, Kanpur with M.A. in political science and achieved a first class degree in the same. His involvement begun with Arya Kumar Sabha of Gwalior and later on, he became the general secretary of it in 1944. In 1939 he also joined RSS as a volunteer. He walks out from his law studies due to the partition riots. He started working for the several newspapers like Deendayal Upadhyaya, Rashtradharma (a Hindi monthly), Panchjanya (a Hindi weekly) and the dailies Swadesh and Veer Arjun. Vajpayee chose to stay a bachelor for whole life.

 Discussing his early political career i.e. from 1942 to 1975 which was the building phase of his career with his first exposure in this field was in August 1942 and at that time along with his elder brother he was also sent to jail for about 23 days during Quit India Movement. In 1951, he worked for the newly emerged Bhartiya Jana Sangh Party as a freedom fighter and was supported by the members of RSS along with Deendayal Upadhaya. Later on, he was appointed as the national secretary of the northern region, based in Delhi. During 1957 Lok Sabha elections he lost to Raja Mahendra Pratap in Mathura but was elected from Balrampur. By his excellence and extraordinary organizational skills he became the head of Jana Sangh in 1968 and with the help of Nanaji Deshmukh, Balraj Madhok and L. K. Advani led this party to a national level. Another phase of his career between 1975 till 1995 was another crucial period of his life which shaped his career. For approx. 2 years between 1975 till 1977 he was arrested along with several other opposition leaders during the internal emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India at that time who belongs to The Indian National Congress Party. In 1977, when all the opposition parties unite together against congress he transformed his Jana Sangh Party into Janata Party. In the same year achievement of this Janata Party during general elections led Vajpayee to become the Minister of External Affairs in Prime Minister Moraji Desai’s Cabinet.

Foreign Minister Vajpayee (far right) and Prime Minister Morarji Desai (third from right, front row) with US President Jimmy Carter during his 1978 visit to India.

Due to his title as foreign minister that year, he became the first person to deliver a speech to the UN general assembly in Hindi. In 1979 with the resignation of Moraji Desai resigned as Prime Minister, Janata party dissolved soon which later on became the turning point for Vajpayee. He along with his friends L. K. Advani, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and with many other colleagues of Jana Sangh and RSS led to the foundation of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980 and became its 1st President. This party became the voice of Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Movement. Later on in March 1995 with the victory in assembly elections in Gujarat and Maharashtra and also with an acceptable performance in elections to Karnataka assembly in December 1994 BJP jumped to greater heights. This led to the victory of BJP in parliamentary elections of 1996 making Vajpayee as the 10th Prime Minister Of India. He has been awarded several honours which include Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna as main highlights. He has never been married and has adopted a daughter named Namita. He is fond of Indian Music and Dance and also loves poetry. He has suffered many health issues which have impaired his speech and also confined him to a wheelchair.This made him invisible from every public event and usually stays at home excepts when he moves out for his routine check-ups at AIIMS, Delhi. In today’s date, his birthday has been declared as “Good Governance Day”.

A.B.Vajpayee meeting President Bush in the White House in 2001