Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra pays tribute to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Subhash Chandra joined the nation in paying tribute to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who died in New Delhi on August 16. Subhash Chandra said he will always be indebted to the "honourable Ataj ji for his services to the nation".

The former prime minister of India was ailing for the last several years and was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on June 11. His condition remained critical and he breathed his last at 5:05 pm on August 16, 2018, plunging the entire country into a pall of gloom. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced that Atal Bihari Vajpayee's body will be taken to his residence at 6-A, Krishna Menon Marg, New Delhi where people can pay their last respects.

Vajpayee served as the prime minister of India thrice. He was the first non-Congress leader to complete the full five-year term as the prime minister of India.

शोक संतप्त राष्ट्र के साथ मैं भी आदरणीय अटल जी द्वारा देश सेवा के लिए किए गए कार्यों के प्रति कृतज्ञता व्यक्त करता हूँ। देश को निर्णायक समय पर अटल जी का कुशल नेतृत्व प्राप्त हुआ। उनके करोड़ों स्नेहीजनों को अपनी संवेदना व्यक्त करता हूँ। वे अटल थे, अटल ही रहेंगे। ॐ शांति। — Subhash Chandra (@subhashchandra) August 16, 2018

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in paying tribute to Vajpayee.

Vajpayee never married and was among the founding members of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Awarded India's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna, on his birthday - December 25, 2014, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government, Vajpayee was an orator and statesman par excellence.

Born in Madhya Pradesh's Gwalior on December 25, 1924, in a middle-class Brahmin family, Vajpayee's father Krishna Bihari Vajpayee was a poet and a school teacher and his mother Krishna Devi a housewife.