Guwahati:
Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,who was on life support system since Wednesday, passed away on Thursday in New Delhi. He passes at 5:05 pm at the age of 93.
He was admitted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
The Assam BJP workers mourned the death of the statesman, who has been time and again referred as an iconic and charismatic leader. A pall of gloom descended on the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party here on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Home Minister rajnath Singh, party president Amit Shah, BJP veteran LK Advani visited the AIIMS to enquire about him.
Prime Minister Narenddra Modi visited the AIIMS on Wednesday to enquire about the condition of Vajpayee and spent about 50 minutes there. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi including several Union Ministers, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, Suresh Prabhu, Jitendra Singh, Harsh Vardhan and Shahnawaz Hussain visited the hospital.
All roads leading to the hospital are witnessing massive traffic jams since Wednesda. Additional security forces have been deployed in and around the hospital.
Former Prime Minister Vajpayee was admitted to the AIIMS on June 11 with kidney tract infecion, chest congestion and his urine output being on the lower side. Vajpayee, a diabetic, has only one functional kidney. It may be mentioned that he suffered a stroke in 2009, weakening his cognitive abilities. Laer, he developed dementia.
Since Wednesday, the BJP workers and students performed havans for the well being of Vajpayee.
Apart from his political identity, he was a remarkable orator, a voracious reader and a prolific poet. Even his opponents from the opposition parties used to wait for hours to hear him speak. From “Kaidi Kaviraj ki Kundalian” which he wrote when he was jailed during emergency to “Amar Aag hai” which was a collection of poems published in 1994, his work was widely appreciated.
He also penned several books. He authored a book “Assam Problem: Repression no solution” in 1981.
He had his own style of punctuating his speeches with thoughtful pauses while emphasising his point of view.