Grand Vajpayee memorial: Work to commence in September, inauguration on Jan 26

New Delhi, Aug 28: The BJP has decided to set up a grand memorial for its tallest leader and former prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The memorial would be constructed at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal near Rajghat, where the former PM was cremated with full state honours.

A team has been set up to work on the memorial and the deadline given is December 25 which incidentally would be the 94th birth anniversary of Vajpayee. The team has been asked to expedite work on the memorial and also instructed to begin work on it by September 15.

Sources say that the memorial needs to be completed by December, but would be inaugurated on Republic Day. Once inaugurated on January 26th, the dignitaries part of the Republic Day celebrations would be able to pay their tributes.

While the grand memorial would come up, the government has however has decided not to convert the 6A, Krishna Menon Marg into a memorial. This is the place where Vajpayee was living at after he stepped down as prime minister in 2004.

The decision not to convert the official bungalow into a memorial is in line with a decision taken by the Vajpayee cabinet in 2000. It was decided that no official bungalow in the Lutyens area would be converted into a memorial. The Modi cabinet in October 2014 also decided not to convert official bungalows into a memorials.