Date:26/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/26/stories/2004122604361000.htm

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Vajpayee celebrates birthday in hometown

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Children greeting the former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his birthday in Gwalior on Saturday. — PTI

GWALIOR, DEC. 25. The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, celebrated his 80th birthday in his hometown today with his relatives and friends, as saffron units organised several programmes in the city to mark the occasion. It is almost a decade since Mr. Vajpayee celebrated his birthday outside the national capital, sources close to him said. The festivities were low-key in view of the State mourning following the former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao's death. However, during a lunch hosted by his close friends and relatives at the Morar Circuit House Mr. Vajpayee gave a recitation of his poems.

He will participate in a function tomorrow to felicitate litterateurs by the Madhya Bharat Hindi Sahitya Sabha, of which he was the secretary during his days in Gwalior.

The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Babulal Gaur, and Ministers Anup Mishra, Rustam Singh, Narayan Singh Kushwah and Narendra Singh Tomar extended their birthday greetings to Mr. Vajpayee.

Senior RSS activist Bejnath Sharma, veteran Congress leaders Raghunath Paprikar and Chimanbhai Modi and senior journalist Manikchand Vajpayee met and wished him.

The BJP organised a `rudrabhishek' at the Achileshwar temple and recited religious verses at the Khedapati temple this morning. An 80-foot greeting card, in the form of a banner, signed by city residents was presented to Mr. Vajapayee by the Bharat Yuva Morcha.

The Gwalior Sona Chandi Vyavasayi Sangh presented an 81-kg flower garland to him.

BJP workers also organised free health check-up camps and distributed sweets among the residents.

In Indore, the BJP workers led by the Madhya Pradesh PWD Minister, Kailash Vijaywargiya, and the newly-elected Mayor, Umashashi Sharma, today offered prayers at the Khajrana Ganesh temple here.Special prayers for the long life and good health of Mr. Vajpayee were performed in temples.

"I am still around"

The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today sounded a warning to his detractors saying his newfound aggression in Parliament was to tell people he was "still around."

Celebrating his birthday here, Mr. Vajpayee said he planned to do things he had not done so far in his chequered political career and complete unfinished tasks in the New Year.

With a motley Gwalior audience delighting in his poetry session, a vintage Vajpayee said his birthday after the 1998 nuclear blast at Pokhran was his most cherished.

To a question how he had spent his life so far, he gestured it had been a smooth ride.

Virtually assuring Babulal Gaur, beside him, that he would continue to be the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister despite the revocation of Uma Bharti's suspension, he said "woh to baithe hain (he is in the saddle)."

Evading a direct reply to a reported letter by over a dozen Madhya Pradesh MLAs to the BJP president, L.K. Advani, demanding the reinstatement of the firebrand leader in the State, Mr. Vajpayee quipped that he did not look after the letters of the party president and would enquire about it later.

PTI