Amarinder visits Vajpayee’s residence to pay respects

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 18

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday visited the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pay his respects.

The chief minister spent about 30 minutes and wrote in the condolence book some of his feelings for Vajpayee, whom he remembered meeting for the first time back in 1970.

The chief minister met Vajpayee’s foster daughter Namita and son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharyya along with other family members, to pay his personal condolences, according to an official spokesperson.

Recalling Vajpayee’s 1970 Punjab visit, the CM said Atal ji had come there to campaign for him and spent three days in Patiala.

The chief minister reminisced that he had come out of the Army in 1968 and was contesting his first election — a bypoll from Dakala in 1970 after the sitting MLA, Basant Singh, was killed by Naxalites.

The chief minister remembered the former prime minister as a great leader, an excellent statesman, a dignified politician and a fine human being. His death had left a vacuum that would be hard to fill, he said.