Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a man with a big heart, simple manners and a great sense of humour. He never had any feeling of personal animosity towards even his political opponents.

An intellect, scholar and farsighted, Vajpayee was an ideal leader and an ideal worker and never thrust his views on others. This was how senior BJP leaders from Madhya Pradesh remembered Vajpayee, who would have turned 100 on December 25 this year. 

Excerpts from their conversation with Free Press

Large hearted His was a peerless personality.

He set the highest standards whether he was in the opposition or in the government. His life and personality can be a source of inspiration for the younger generations. I was fortunate to have got ample opportunity to work under his leadership. I found him to be a very sensitive person. He was an original thinker and a farsighted man. He was an ideal leader, worker and administrator. His dream of connecting villages with roads is being fulfilled now and so also his dream of connecting rivers. I learned from him that one should have a large heart.

-Narendra Singh Tomar, Speaker, MP Vidhan Sabha

Sense of humour

He was truly a people’s leader.

One can learn how a leader should behave from him. He never thrust his views on others. Even when he was the Prime Minister he never behaved arrogantly. He just said, “I feel that…., it is my view that….” and so on. He believed that one should not have personal enmity or bitterness towards one’s political opponents. One should not use such words or make such comments that the next time one meets one’s political opponents, there is not even an exchange of greetings. He had a great sense of humour. At a party meeting, when we decided that the next day we would enter the Well of the Lok Sabha on a particular issue, he said, “Jab aap logon ne taay hi kar liya hai ki kuen mein koodna hai, to kudo” (If you people have decided to jump into the well, go and jump.)”

-Sumitra Mahajan, former Speaker, Lok Sabha

What’s a battle without risk

It was Atal ji who brought me into politics from Hindu movement.

When midterm elections to Lok Sabha were announced in 1998, there were rumours that as a Hindu face, I would be fielded from either Bhind or Rajgarh.  He called me to Delhi and told me that he would like me to contest from Gwalior.  Now Gwalior was a difficult seat to win. “What is a battle if there is no risk involved in it,” he told me. I contested and lost. But still when he met him after the elections, he embraced him and told me that I had done well. He was a very easygoing person and whenever I met him, I never felt that I was meeting a top leader.   -Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya, former MP

Loved hot aloo vadas

I was the office secretary of the state BJP from 1985 to 2003. Whenever Atal ji came to Bhopal, I went to receive him at the airport or the railway station. Though he could have stayed at the VIP Guest House near Lal Ghati, he preferred the Circuit House in Professor Colony. He did not want the party workers to be inconvenienced as Lal Ghati was far from the city. He was a foodie and loved to eat hot Aloo Vadas, Kacahuris and Samosas. He never demanded any particular facility and adjusted to whatever arrangements were there.

Raghunandan Sharma, senior BJP leader