Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (often wrongly spelt Behari; अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी in Devnagari) (born December 25, 1924) was the Prime Minister of India in 1996 and again from October 13, 1998 until May 19, 2004.

Prime Minister of India, Twice

Political energy and expansion for the BJP made it the single-largest political party in the Lok Sabha elected in 1996. Mired down by corruption scandals, the Congress was at a historic low, and a vast medley of regional parties and break-off factions dominated the hung Parliament. Asked to form the Government, A.B. Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister, but the BJP failed to gather enough support from other parties to make a majority. Vajpayee was forced to resign after just 13 days, when it was clear there could be no majority. After a third-party coalition ruled between 1996 and 1998, the terribly divided Parliament was dissolved and fresh elections again put the BJP on the front. This time, a cohesive bloc of political parties lined up with it to form the National Democratic Alliance, and A.B. Vajpayee was sworn in as the Prime Minister, and the NDA proved its 286 vote majority in a narrow vote of confidence.

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Vajpayee strode into a decisive phase of national life and history: the Congress Party, dominant over 40 years, had fallen into ignominy, and warring, corrupt and fractious regional parties threatened the very stability of the nation by continually fracturing government work. The failed third-party coalition presented two years of chaos and pure incompetence. No visible and inspiring leaders showed amidst a myriad of confusion, and a struggling economy dampened the hopes of the whole nation. With terrorism strong in Kashmir and the Northeastern states, and with the inherent national problems of poverty, illiteracy, corruption and unemployment plaguing uniformly, it was the worst period in free India's history.

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A.B. Vajpayee faced several crises while heading a fractious coalition. Tamil Nadu's AIADMK party continually threatened, on one point or the other, to withdraw support from the coalition, exhausting the Government before it could take off. In a situation comic and tragic as well, national leaders had to fly down from Delhi to Chennai to pacify the AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha.

Related Topics:
Chennai - AIADMK - J. Jayalalitha

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But Prime Minister Vajpayee also earned kudos for strong leadership in this chaotic period.

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