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

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

File photo

New Delhi: 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 and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh 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.

PM Shri @narendramodi, BJP National President Shri @JPNadda, Defence Minister Shri @rajnathsingh and HM Shri @AmitShah pay floral tribute to Atal ji on his punyatithi. pic.twitter.com/zOEIQtuHjG — BJP (@BJP4India) August 16, 2022

Delhi | President Droupadi Murmu pays floral tribute to former Prime Minister #AtalBihariVajpayee on his death anniversary, at Sadaiv Atal. pic.twitter.com/WPAkfMrHP1 — ANI (@ANI) August 16, 2022

Pushpanjali & Prayer meeting on punyatithi of Bharat Ratna & Former PM Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji at Sadaiv Atal in New Delhi. https://t.co/XNlDUCAUrm

— BJP (@BJP4India) August 16, 2022

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'.