Atal Bihari Vajpayee turns 89

New Delhi: Senior BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee turned 89 on Wednesday with a stream of leaders wishing him on the occasion.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was among the first to greet Vajpayee on his birthday. Singh, who reached Vajpayee's 6A Krishna Menon Marg residence around 12:30 PM, remained with the BJP veteran for nearly 20 minutes.

Vajpayee's deputy in the NDA Cabinet and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani also wished the former PM on the occasion.

Vajpayye has been ailing for some time now and is confined to his official residence. Several people had been waiting since morning to greet Vajpayee on his birthday.

Most of them had come from Gwalior where was born, while some had come from Lucknow, a constituency he represented in the Lok Sabha. BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also drove down to the BJP veteran's residence to wish him on the occasion. 

Besides the Gujarat Chief Minister, Chief Ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Vasundhra Raje Scindia and Shivraj Singh Chauhan also greeted Vajpayee.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda, former party chief Nitin Gadkari, party leaders Ananth Kumar, Harsh Vardhan and Vijendra Gupta were among the other prominent people who met the former PM.

Born in the family of a humble school teacher on December 25, 1924, in Gwalior, Vajpayee began his career first as a poet, dabbled in journalism and later rose to become one of the most widely regarded political leaders of the country.

He is considered a guru of coalition politics, who successfully led a government supported by as many as 24 political parties. 

Delhi BJP President Vijay Goel was among the party leaders who wished Vajpayee by calling on the former PM at his residence. Goel along with party leaders like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj also attended a recital of devotional songs in the evening which was organised by NGO Lok Abhiyan at FICCI.

BJP also distributed sweaters among over 2,000 under-privileged children at Dev Nagar while an 89kg laddoo featured as part of the celebrations in Mayur Vihar. At Chandni Chowk, the party organised blood donation camps and, in a special gesture, 89 pigeons, too, were set free to mark the occasion.

Goel also held a Facebook chat session during which he shared his experiences and several anecdotes with netizens.

"I've had the wonderful opportunity of working closely as a minister of state in the PMO with Atalji during his tenure as PM... I learnt so much from him," Goel said. "I am sure that with BJP continuing to move along the path shown by Atalji, we will register a historic win in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls," he added.