Lucknow, August 16: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with UP Deputy CMs Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya paid floral tribute to the statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his death anniversary in Lucknow on Friday. CM Yogi Adityanath said, "Today is the sixth death anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and on this occasion, on behalf of the people of the state and the UP government, we pay tribute to him. We all know that his ancestral village is in Bateshwar in the Agra district. He completed his higher studies in Kanpur. He joined RSS and created his identity as a writer and poet."

He further said that in independent India, under the guidance of Syama Prasad Mukherjee and Deendayal Upadhyaya he started his public life.

"In 1957, he became Lok Sabha MP from the Shravasti seat of Balrampur and was elected to the Lok Sabha ten times and Rajya Sabha twice. He was elected as a Lok Sabha MP from Lucknow for five consecutive times and it was from here that he became Prime Minister of India to remove the political instability of the country and laid the foundation of modern India. For six decades he played an important role in public life. Today he is not among us but his memories and his works give us a new inspiration," he further added.

Earlier President Droupadi Murmu along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar paid tributes to the former PM Vajpayee in a prayer meeting at 'Sadaiv Atal' in Delhi.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla along with other members of the Cabinet also attended the prayer meeting at 'Sadaiv Atal', the memorial of the former prime minister.

Vajpayee's foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya also arrived at 'Sadaiv Atal', to pay him floral tribute on his death anniversary.

Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was also present at the 'Sadaiv Atal' memorial to pay tribute to former PM Vajpayee.

"Tribute to former Prime Minister, Bharat Ratna, our source of inspiration, respected Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji on his death anniversary," the official handle of BJP posted on X.

Union Minister Amit Shah paid tribute to former PM Vajpayee and said as a Prime Minister, he strengthened the country strategically and economically.

Born in Gwalior in 1924, Vajpayee was the face of the BJP for decades and was the first non-Congress prime minister to have served a full term in office.

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, 2018.

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