Atal Bihari Vajpayee (born 25 December 1924) is an Indian statesman who served as the 10th Prime Minister of India,

in three non-consecutive terms, first for 13 days in 1996, then for 13 months from 1998 to 1999 and then from 1999 to 2004 for a full five year term. A parliamentarian for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India's Parliament) nine times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha (upper house).[1] He also served as the Member of Parliament, he won his first election from Balrampur and later he moved to Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, until 2009, when he retired from active politics due to health concerns. Vajpayee was one amongst the founder members of the erstwhile Jana Sangh political party and had also been its president. He was also the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Morarji Desai. When the Janata government collapsed, Vajpayee renamed his former party Jana Sangh as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On 23rd April after the stampede at a function to distribute sarees in former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's constituency a few weeks before the Lok Sabha elections 2004. Twenty-two people had just died, falling over one another to clutch at free sarees being flung at them as part of a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader's birthday celebrations. More damaging to the BJP's image than the attempted disrobing of Draupadi was to the Kauravas' reputation in Mahabharata, this macabre spectacle seemed to me to be the stuff of epic poetry. It seemed like something that could cause even the BJP to cringe, if its Kavi Raj had chosen to speak words like whiplashes. But Vajpayee chose to play a mute Bhishma.His inaction was consistent with the sentiment expressed in one of his poems: that a grand response in the epic spirit is not possible in these benighted times.
"Dharmaraj has not overcome His addiction to dice. In every panchayat Draupadi is robbed of her honour. Without Krishna Today The Mahabharata will be fought. No matter who claims the throne, The poor will continue to suffer." (From "Who are the Kauravas, and Who the Pandavas?") Vajpayee may not be a Vyasa, but he does speak on the grand themes - life, alienation, death. On his birthday some years ago, he wrote: "And so, a new milestone's been crossed. How many more remain, no one knows.

And no one knows when the final destination will arrive... But the season's turned, the shadows lengthen, The vessel's drained, all enchantments fade, Though I staked all I had, it's been a contract of loss... (Sab kuch daav lagaakar ghaate kaa vyapaar hua, from Naye Meel ka Paththar)

This is one of the poems written by a man capable of reflection, who has not measured up to his own expectations. It is as though something is on the tip of his tongue, which he has chosen never to let slip. And so, though they glisten with flashes of insight, his poems give nothing away about the Faustian nature of his climb to the heights. This is the Vajpayee we have known for the past four decades, who hitched his ratha to what looked like the rising Hindutva star. That star is looking more and more like a misshapen meteorite as days pass. Will this far-from-heavenly body disintegrate before it hits the earth, or is it going to create a horrific crater in the subcontinent? Not many poets are remembered for more than one poem, or for one telling phrase. It might well be that Vajpayee will be remembered for many of the poems in this book. One that appears to have fought its way up from a deep sadness is the poem, "What Road Should I Go Down?", in which this proud man mourns: "... honour lost at busy crossroads" (Chourahi par luttha chir).