अटल बिहारी .....

Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's political career stretches over 50 years. Over the course of his career, he was elected to the Lok Sabha (House of the People) nine times and twice to the Raj Sabha (House of the Lords). And he twice served as the Prime Minister of India. The first time he served as a Prime Minister, it was for a short time between May 16 and May 31, 1996. The BJP had won the largest number of parliamentary seats in 1996 elections but they failed to form a coalition and therefore, Vajpayee had to resign. However, he became the Prime Minister again on October 13, 1999 when the Bharitiya Janata Party (BJP) won the most number of seats in the parliament and he headed a coalition government---the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

He began to be seriously interested in politics from his college days when he was a student of Law and Political Science. He then went on to participate in the Quit India Movement and a career in journalism. But his career in journalism lasted only till 1951 when he joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS).

The BJS was the precursor of the BJP. In 1957, he was elected to the second Lok Sabha. Over the decades, he was an active member of the Lok Sabha and the Raj Sabha. He also became the leader of the BJS and eventually the BJP too. In 1994, he was given Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant Award for the Best Parliamentarian.

Over the course of his political career, he managed to establish his reputation as a man of the masses, a poet and an inspiring orator. After becoming the Prime Minister, he seemed to have softened BJP's reputation of being anti-muslim. He advocates the development of India as a nuclear power as he supported nuclear tests in Pokran in 1998. He pressed for the continuation of free market reforms and encouraged women's rights.

In 1994, he was conferred the highest civilian award---the Padma Bhushan award.

Some of the titles of the books that he published are:

Lok Sabha Mein Atalji (a collection of speeches)
Mrityu Ya Hatya, Amar Balidan, Kaidi Kavirai Ki Kundalian (a collection of poems written in jail during Emergency)
New Dimensions of India's Foreign Policy (a collection of speeches delivered as External Affairs Minister during 1977-79)
Jana Sangh Aur Musalman
Three Decades in Parliament (Speeches in three volumes)
Amar Aag Hai(a collection of poems) 1994
Meri Ekyavan Kavitayen
Four Decades in Parliament (English)-4 Volumes of Speeches in Parliament, 1957-95