Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician who thrice served as the Prime Minister of India.
He was a member of the Indian Parliament for over four decades, being elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house, ten times and twice to the Rajya Sabha. He served as the Member of Parliament for Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh until 2009 when he retired from active politics due to health concerns. Vajpayee was among the founding members of the erstwhile Bhartiya Jana Singh which he also headed from 1968 to 1972. He was the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister of Moraji Desai.
He was conferred India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, by the President of India in 2015. The Modi government declared in 2014 that Vajpayee's birthday, 25 December, would be marked as Good Governance Day. He died on 16 August 2018 due to age related illness.
