Former Indian prime minister and statesman, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, passed away on Thursday (Aug 16) in New Delhi following a prolonged illness. He was 93.

He breathed his last at a little after 5pm at the capital’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The veteran politician had been admitted there on June 11 following urinary and chest complications.

A long-standing parliamentarian and deeply respected leader across the political spectrum, Vajpayee served as the head of the Indian government three times. He is best known for reinforcing India’s credentials as a nuclear power before the world.

He had announced his retirement in December 2009 after over six decades in public life. His first shot at prime ministership came in 1996, but the coalition led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of which he was a founding member, lasted just 13 days.

Vajpayee formed the government again in 1998. This time it lasted 13 months and proved to be deeply tumultuous for the country.

Eventually, he formed the government again after the BJP emerged as the single largest party in the 1999 general elections. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that his party then led became the first non-Congress entity—and coalition—to complete a full five-year term. Coming after years of unstable permutations at its helm, his government provided India some stability as it turned the millennium.

BDST: 1822 HRS, AUG 16, 2018
AP