RIP Vajpayee: This is how newspapers' front page looked like

New Delhi, Aug 17: The BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee's final journey to begin on Friday. The doyen of Indian politics breathed his last at 5.05 pm on Thursday at the age of 93. The news has occupied the front page of mainstream media. Every media house treated the news with their own style and imprtance.

Senior journalist Krishnaprasad wrote on his Facebook post, "For newspapers like 'The Telegraph', Atal Bihari Vajpayee's death is a good occasion to remind readers of his audacious reminder of 'Raj Dharma' to Narendra Modi: "If India is not secular, then India is not India at all." 'The Indian Express' underlines the ephemeral nature of power for those strutting around as if there it is eternal: "Governments will come and go. India must remain." Only 'Deccan Herald', the Malayalam dailies 'Manorama' and 'Mathrubhoomi' lead with the flood disaster in Kerala."

The Telegraph

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made one of the most memorable statements in the new millennium on the idea of India when he said "if India is not secular, then India is not India at all". Vajpayee said this while calling for the continuation of the inter-faith dialogue on the Ayodhya issue, a little over a week after the Gujarat massacres.

Indian Express

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete a full term in office at the head of a coalition he stitched together with his moderate politics and charismatic appeal, died of multiple health complications at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi Thursday. He was 93.

Hindustan Times

Prashant Jha writes: India's former prime minister and one of the country's most-loved and respected leaders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, died on Thursday evening, uniting an otherwise deeply divided political class in grief.

Vajpayee, three-time PM, 12-time parliamentarian, former president of both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its earlier avatar, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and a popular mass leader who brought both respectability and powertothe BJP for thefirst time, passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at the age of 93.

Deccan Chronicle

Former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, one of India's most charismatic leaders who led the nation through several crises while holding together a tenuous coalition with his inclusive politics and superlative oratory, died on Thursday. He was 93. Vajpayee, a bachelor, is survived by his adopted daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya. He will be cremated on Friday in New Delhi.

The Times of India

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 93, who led BJP to pathbreaking electoral victories, headed coalitions at the Centre from 1998 to 2004 and became the first non-Congress PM to complete a full term, passed away on Thursday after a prolonged illness.

The New Indian Express

Santwana Bhattacharya writes: The last time one saw A B Vajpayee engage in public life was exactly a decade ago: July 22, 2008. The day of the trust vote for his successor, Manmohan Singh. Vajpayee was wheeled into the Lok Sabha lobby. He cast his vote quietly and was wheeled away. He was already beyond all oratory, all witticisms. It must have sounded like a party in the next house to him: a faint din, perhaps flashes of memory of a place he once owned. A decade, as the variable truism goes, is a long time in life and politics. It's indeed been a long, fuzzy winter for one of the most warm-blooded personas in Indian public life.

Deccan Herald

The english daliy from Karnataka carried Kerala floods on its frontpage with unlike other news papers.