The former prime minister was visited by top leaders including Modi, Manmohan, Shah, Advani, Rajnath, and a large number of BJP workers and well-wishers.
New Delhi: He rested semi-upright on his Fowler bed, swathed in blue and white bed linen, freshly shaved. With his spectacles on and his eyes closed, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee looked serene and at peace with the world, even as throngs of supporters and well-wishers came calling to wish him a happy birthday.
He turned 93 Monday and among those who dropped by to wish him were PM Narendra Modi, former PM Manmohan Singh, and BJP chief Amit Shah.
The room, painted cream, had barely any decoration, and rows upon rows of shoes lay outside the white wooden door. No flowers were allowed, owing to the risk of infection. The portico and the rooms inside though were meticulously decorated with rose petals, grass, and marigold flowers. A huge portrait of Vajpayee adorned the main hall.
A popular figure
More than a decade after his political retirement owing to failing health, Vajpayee – the first BJP politician to be prime minister – remains a popular figure among the masses and BJP workers alike. This could be gauged from the fact that security personnel had a harrowing time controlling the crowd which had thronged his 6A Krishna Menon Marg residence.
The crowd continued to grow despite the fact that the bungalow was off-limits to anyone for almost an hour between 10 and 11 am – when PM Modi spent 50 minutes with Vajpayee and his family.
Several other important BJP leaders such as Vajpayee’s former comrade-in-arms L.K. Advani, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, central ministers Vijay Goel and Satyapal Singh, BJP’s organisation general secretary Ram Lal, and many others visited Vajpayee before noon.
Senior party leaders were greeted with gur sandesh as they went to wish the poet-politician good health.
For the visitors, samosas and laddoos had been arranged on the lawns near the main entry to the residential quarters. Sources said a cake was also cut to celebrate his birthday.
There were also the now-common selfie-lovers who couldn’t help themselves and started clicking pictures. However, they were banished from the residential area if they continued to pull out their phones – photography was strictly prohibited.