President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other political leaders on Wednesday paid floral tributes to Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his fifth death anniversary at the 'Sadaiv Atal' memorial in Delhi.
Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, too, laid floral tributes at the memorial of the saffron stalwart.
Notably, for the first time, fellow partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were invited to the event to pay tributes to the former Prime Minister at the Sadaiv Atal Memorial.
Among the partner leaders of the NDA at the event were former Bihar chief minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi, Tamil Manila Congress leader GK Vasan, AIADMK's Thambi Durai, Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, NCP leaders Praful Patel and Agatha Sangama, among others.
Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh, from the Nitish Kumar-led JDU, also paid floral tributes to the former PM.
Vajpayee's foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya was also laid floral tributes at the memorial of the departed leader.
One of BJP's tallest leaders, Vajpayee served as the Prime Minister of India from May 16, 1996, to June 1, 1996, and again from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004. He also served as India's External Affairs Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Moraji Desai from 1977 to 1979. He passed away at AIIMS Hospital in Delhi on August 16 in 2018.
