Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, admitted to New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on June 11 with kidney and urinary infection and chest congestion, passed away on Thursday. He was 93. Often described as the moderate face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vajpayee served as the country’s prime minister for 13 days in 1996, 13 months in 1998, and a little under five years from 1999. He was India's first non-Congress prime minister to last a full five-year term.
Vajpayee began his political career as a freedom fighter, with his first brush with politics as