RIP Atal Bihari Vajpayee: BJP icon passes away; PM Narendra Modi says it’s personal loss

RIP Atal Bihari Vajpayee: BJP icon passes away; PM Narendra Modi says it’s personal loss

RIP Atal Bihari Vajpayee: Former Prime Minister and BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee passed away on Thursday at Delhi’s AIIMS. The BJP stalwart breathed his last at around 5 PM. He was on life support system since Wednesday as his condition remained critical. The 93-year-old BJP leader, a diabetic, had one functional kidney. He had suffered a stroke in 2009 that weakened his cognitive abilities. Subsequently, he developed dementia.

“It is with profound grief that we inform about the sad demise of former Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee at 05:05pm on 16.08.2018. Shri Vajpayee was admitted in AIIMS on 11.06.2018 and was stable in the last 9 weeks under the care of a team of AIIMS doctors. Unfortunately, his condition deteriorated over the last 36 hours and he was put on life support systems. Despite the best of efforts, we have lost him today. We join the nation in deeply mourning this great loss,” Dr (Prof) Aarti Vij, chairperson media and protocol division of AIIMS said in a press statement while announcing the demise of the leader.