With unerring foresight, Jawaharlal Nehru had made two prophecies about his succession. First, that Jayaprakash Narayan would follow him one day into the Prime Minister's Office. Second, impressed with the prodigious oratorial skills of a callow young man named Atal Behari Vajpayee during his very first stint in Parliament, Nehru predicted that some day this youngster would be India's Prime Minister. Nehru was almost right about the first and has turned out to be on the dot with the second. JP could well have become Prime Minister had he not opted for the Gandhian path of renunciation in the 1960s, only to emerge as the great moral force of Indian politics and spiritual leader of the Janata Party that was forged to overthrow dictatorship and restore democracy in 1977. Atal Behari, on the other hand, chose to blaze an unparalleled trail in non-Congress parliamentary politics. Born on December 25, 1924 at Gwalior, Vajpayee has with him a political career spanning over four decades. Educated at Victoria (now Laxmibai) College, Gwalior, he is a journalist and social worker by profession. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1957. The only parliamentarian to have been elected from four different states at different times, he has been a member of the 5th - 7th and then 10th - 13th Lok Sabha. It wasn't easy making a mark in the Lok Sabha those days, dominated as it was by stalwarts like Ram Manohar Lohia, Madhu Limaye, Jyotirmoy Basu and other strident critics of Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Moreover, Atal Behari espoused a brand of politics that was anathema to both the Congress and the Socialists. And the Jan Sangh which he represented had too few MPs in the House to give him requisite vocal support. He came into his own only after the watershed election of 1967. That election sent the Congress juggernaut into reverse gear for the first time and anti-Congressism became an acceptable political credo - symbolized by the formation of Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) Governments in several States of North India. Atal Behari's political career, though, had an unspectacular beginning. Like most young men of his time, he was charged by the twin currents of nationalism, and egalitarianism as a student in Gwalior in the 1940s. Along with his classmates, he participated in the Quit India Movement of 1942 but the movement fizzled out in most parts of the country within weeks, following a heavy-handed crackdown by the British authorities terrified at the prospect of internal unrest at a time when Hitler's Germany was cutting through Allied resistance like a hot knife through butter. The Communists, meanwhile, had floated their student organization, All India Students' Federation (AISF), the only national organization of its kind. A member of that outfit, Atal Behari was steeped in quasi-Marxist ideas. It was then that he also turned to writing poetry. Although never a poet of the class of other AISF activist-turned-writers like Sahir Ludhianvi, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Neeraj or Kaifi Azmi, Atal Behari has, nevertheless, successfully retained a strong poetic streak in him, which testifies to his immense human sensitivity - a characteristic missing in most successful politicians. His latest collection of poems was released by one of his predecessors, P V Narasimha Rao, barely two years ago. While he could never qualify as a career poet, Atal Behari excelled in declamation. Even as a student leader, he exercised mesmerizing charm on listeners. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which he joined in his student days (having had his initiation in the Arya Samaj) for a few years prior to that, quickly realized his potential as orator and groomed him adequately for the task. During his stint as pracharak, he used his skills to maximum effect to spread the RSS message in different parts of India. After Independence, the Bengal stalwart Shyama Prasad Mookerjee approached the RSS for help to find a pro-Hindu political organization since the existing outfits like Hindu Mahasabha and Ramrajya Parishad were too obscurantist to offer a modern alternative to Jawaharlal Nehru's dynamic vision. He is the Founder-Member of the Bhartiya Jana Sangh in 1951, which is the forerunner of today's Bharitya Janata Party. Widely respected within the country and abroad as a statesman of the genre of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Shri Vajpayee's 1998-99 stint as Prime Minister has been characterized as 'one year of courage of conviction.' It was during this period that India entered a select group of nations following a series of successful nuclear tests at Pokharan in May 1998. The bus journey to Pakistan in February 1999 was widely acclaimed for starting a new era of negotiations to resolve the outstanding problems of the sub-continent. Subsequently when the Kargil war took place, the nation commended Vajpayee's successful handling of the situation in pushing back the intruders from the Indian soil. It was during Vajpayee's successful tenure in 1998-99 that despite a global recession, India achieved 5.8 percent GDP growth, which was higher than previous years. Higher agricultural production and increase in foreign reserves during his tenure were indicative of an overall growth in an economy which was responding to the needs of the people.

The bold decisions taken by the country for strengthening rural economy, building a strong infrastructure and revitalizing human development programmes indicated their commitment to a strong and self-reliant nation to meet the challenges of the next millennium so as to make India an economic power in the 21st century. Speaking from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of the 52nd Independence Day, he has said, "I have a vision of India: an India free of hunger and fear, an India free of literacy and want." A man of the masses, firm in his political convictions, India has an inspiring leader in Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He has served on a number of important Committees of Parliament, including the Public Accounts Committee (1991-93) and Chairman of Standing Committee on External Affairs (1993-96). On October 13, 1999, he took charge as Prime Minister of India for a second consecutive term, the first being for a short time in 1996. A veteran Parliamentarian who career spans over four decades, he has been elected to the Lok Sabha nine times and to the Rajya Sabha twice, a remarkable feat in itself. As India's Foreign Minister, Chairperson of various important Standing Committees of Parliament and Leader of Opposition, he has been an involved member in the shaping of post-Independence domestic and foreign policy. An ardent champion of women's rights and social equality, Vajpayee believes in a forward-looking India. India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, was conferred upon him in 1992, in recognition of his selfless dedication to India. When he was named India's Best Parliamentarian in 1994, the citation read: "True to his name Atalji is an eminent national leader, an erudite politician, a selfless social worker, forceful orator, poet and litterateur, journalist and indeed a multi-faceted personality… Atalji articulates the aspirations of the masses… his works ever echo total commitment to nationalism." Before his 6 years as prime minister came to an end on May 13, 2004, he had already transformed the face of the world's largest democracy into an economic and military power. Revered widely for his love for poetry and eloquent speeches, Vajpayee is known to be a voracious reader. He is also known to be extremely fond of Indian music and dance. Many are of the opinion that if he had been victorious in the Elections 2004, that would have cemented his legacy as one of India's most powerful and successful leaders.