Greet face of BJP, Vajpayee on his 87th B'day

New Delhi, Dec 25: Christmas brought double celebration for India as the country feted the 87th Birthday of the first bachelor Prime Minister and the "face of BJP", Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday, Dec 25.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with other leaders like Arun Shourie visited Vajpayee's residence in the capital and greeted the Padma Vibhushan winner.

According the sources, BJP leader LK Advani and Narendra Modi alos wished him through phone and BJP also planned to assemble Vajpayee's work including speeches, poems, photographs interviews and writings within a year.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee

An eminent journalist and poet came in the politics in 1942, when he was arrested during the Quit India movement. He became the first President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980.

With the pace of time, BJP became a prominent political party in India beside Congress and Vajpayee always has been found to fight for BJP.

Vajpayee as PM of India

In 1996, political energy and expansion made BJP the single-largest political party in the Lok Sabha election. Vajpayee sworned as the Prime Minister but due to lack of support from other parties to form a majority, he resigned from his post.

Following the fall of two governments simultaneously, BJP again came in the power in 1998 but again the back out by Jayalalitha led AIADMK in 2009, BJP struggled to hold majority and the country returned to elections with Vajpayee remaining the "care-taker Prime Minister".

During this hard time, BJP led NDA government faced several hard challenges and the hurdles proved Vajpayee's ability to remain the Prime Minister of the country.

During this tenure, India marked its niche as the nuclear weapon having country as the nation conducted five underground nuclear tests in Pokhran in Rajasthan.

Then came the time for the Lahore summit where Vajpayee began a push for a full-scale diplomatic peace process with Pakistan.

Soon after the summit, Pakistan launched Kargil war and Vajpayee led NDA government handled the crisis situation tactfully and finally, India was successful to protect the country.

Vajpayee's new innings as PM

On Oct 13, 1999, Atal Bihari Vajpayee once again took oath as Prime Minister of India but this time for the third time. The coalition government that was formed lasted its full term of 5 years – the only non-Congress government to do so.

Once again, NDA government faced obstacles in its reign as

• Indian Airlines Flight 814
• National Highways Development Project, foreign policy and economic reform
• Attack on Parliament (2001)

In 2004 when National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was widely expected to retain power after the 2004 general election, lost the election and Congress led UPA government came in power.

In 2005, Vajpayee, finally, announced publicly, "I will not participate in any electoral politics. from now onwards, Lal Krishna Advani and Pramod Mahajan will be the Ram-Laxman (the two godly brothers much revered and worshiped by Hindus) of the BJP."

Though Vajpayee retired from his political duty, the nation still remembers his contribution and zeals and on his 87th Birth Day, OneIndia wishes him a Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas.

OneIndia News