‘Atal was more than a colleague, he was my closest friend for 65 years’

Mohua.Chatterjee@timesgroup.com: TOI 17.08.2018

I will miss Vajpayee immensely…” This was the first reaction of BJP veteran L K Advani, who was in public life with the late former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee for nearly 65 years.

The 90-year-old former deputy PM was speechless when he heard the news of Vajpayee’s death around 5.30pm on Thursday. Advani had visited AIIMS where Vajpayee was admitted for nearly nine weeks on Thursday morning and sat in a waiting room for an hour, along with daughter Pratibha and aide Deepak Chopra.

He remained restless and refused to meet anyone after the visit, till their former colleague and ailing leader Jaswant Singh’s wife arrived to meet him. The two shared the grief of losing their ‘Atalji’.

The pall of gloom over the Prithviraj Road residence of Advani was palpable when the BJP veteran sat down to write his condolence message.

He wrote: “I am at a loss for words to express my deep grief and sadness today as we all mourn the passing away of one of India’s tallest statesmen, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. To me, Atalji was more than a senior colleague — in fact he was my closest friend for over 65 years. I cherish the memories of my long association with him, right from our days as pracharaks of RSS, to the inception of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the struggle of the dark months during the Emergency leading to the formation of Janata Party and later the emergence of Bharatiya Janata Party in 1980... His captivating leadership qualities, mesmerising oratory, soaring patriotism and above all, his sterling humane qualities like compassion, humility and his remarkable ability to win over adversaries despite ideological differences have all had a profound effect on me in all my years in public life. I will miss Atalji immensely.”

Later, he visited Vajpayee’s residence. In the last few years, Advani used to be among the first callers here on December 25, Vajpayee’s birthday.