New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday paid tribute to the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his 99th birth anniversary, saying that the former prime minister worked for the country’s development all his life.
Modi, along with President Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and several ministers and political leaders, including J.P. Nadda, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiren Rijiju, Hardeep Singh Puri and Arjun Ram Meghwal, was present at the BJP stalwart’s memorial — ‘Sadaiv Atal’ — in the capital.
A great orator, Vajpayee was the popular face of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and then the Bharatiya Janata Party. His appeal across ideological lines contributed to the party garnering support and successfully leading a coalition government at the Center from 1999 to 2004.