Atal Bihari Vajpayee's death anniversary: President Murmu, PM Modi pay tributes to former PM

President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a host of other dignitaries on Tuesday (August 16, 2022) paid tributes to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his fourth death anniversary. They were joined by several Union ministers including Home Minister Amit Shah at 'Sadaiv Atal', Vajpayee's memorial in the national capital.

They also attended a prayer meeting in the memory of the BJP stalwart who was crucial to the party's rise to power in the second half of the 1990s as his amiable personality and cross-party relations brought it many allies and helped it form a winning coalition.

A prime minister for six years between 1998-2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee died in 2018 at 93 years of age.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee first took charge as PM in 1996    

He first took charge as Prime Minister of India for a short period in 1996, followed by a second and a third term between 1998-2004. Vajpayee, notably, was the first PM since Jawaharlal Nehru to have become Prime Minister of India with two successive mandates.

The country's second-highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, was conferred upon Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1992. He was then conferred India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the then president of India Pranab Mukherjee in 2015.

In 1994, he was also named India's 'Best Parliamentarian'.