Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a great prime minister and an outstanding parliamentarian, Manmohan Singh said
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's successor Manmohan Singh today expressed "profound sorrow" at the former prime minister's death and described him as one of the tallest leaders of modern India.
"An excellent orator, an impressive poet, an exceptional public servant, an outstanding parliamentarian and a great prime minister, Shri Vajpayee ji stood among the tallest leaders of modern India, who spent his whole life serving our great country. His services to our nation will be remembered for a long time to come," said Dr Singh, who took over from Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004, after the BJP-led coalition lost power to the Congress.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a three-time prime minister and a charismatic leader who led the nation through several crises and held together a tenuous coalition with his inclusive politics, died at AIIMS hospital this evening. He was 93.
Vajpayee, who never married, is survived by his adopted daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya.
He had been admitted to AIIMS or the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on June 11 with a variety of ailments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Vajpayee's death as "the end of an era" and said in a series of tweets that every Indian and the BJP worker would continue to be guided by his vision. "I am speechless, I am thoughtless but a wave of feelings is sweeping my mind," the PM tweeted.