Atal Bihari Vajpayee Quotes (Images)

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born in a middle-class Brahmin family in Gwalior. He is an Indian statesman who was the eleventh Prime Minister of India, first for 13 days in 1996 and then from 1998 to 2004. A leader of the centre-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he is the first Prime Minister from outside the Indian National Congress party to serve a full five-year term. A parliamentarian for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha nine times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha. He also served as the Member of Parliament for Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, until 2009, when he retired from active politics due to health concerns. Vajpayee was one amongst the founder members of erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which he had also headed. He was also the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Morarji Desai. When Janata government collapsed, Vajpayee restarted the Jana Sangh as the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980. Vajpayee attended Gwalior's Victoria College and graduated with distinction in Hindi, English and Sanskrit. He completed his post-graduation with an M.A. in Political Science from DAV College, Kanpur, and was awarded a first-class degree. Later he became a full-time worker of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Vajpayee served as the Prime Minister of India from 1996 to 2004 in three non-consecutive terms.