A photographer managed to sneak in and clicked a photograph of Mr Vajpayee with chicken legs on his plate. “Aap ko bhi to naya intro chahiye,” he once quipped to a journalist. Unlike most politicians of the day, he made sure that every speech was different from the previous one. A saint advised the villagers to dig a large pit and on a moonless night, every resident should pour a bowl of milk into it to escape the curse of death. Half an hour later when Vajpayee came out of the collectorate and began to address the crowd, he started with ‘Arre bhai pehle mujhe MP to banao, phir PM banunga”. Every villager went to the pit and made their contribution as advised by the saint.“Once there was a village where a disease had struck and people were dying. His security personnel were instructed not to push away voters and he made sure to meet those that came with problems. Within two hours, I got my house back and when I later sent a letter of thanks to the Prime Minister, I got a reply”. People should know this”.The then UP Press Club secretary Suresh Bahadur Singh recalls, “Mr Vajpayee was fond of non-vegetarian food and lunch was served to him in a VIP enclosure.The crowd cheered lustily and the former Prime Minister went on to narrate an anecdote.Mr Vajpayee, from 1991 to 2004, when he represented Lucknow in the Lok Sabha, established a bond with his voters.

As a human being, he has inspired the nation.Cries of “hamara PM kaisa ho, Atal Behari jaisa ho” reverberated as Atal Behari Vajpayee went in to file his nominations for the elections to the 13th Lok Sabha. I eat non-vegetarian food and I do not want to hide this. I immediately took the photographers aside and asked him not to use the picture. I was surprised and went in.“A month later, Mr Vajpayee came to Lucknow and I tried to get an appointment but failed. He would ask me to stop the car if he saw a group of people waiting to meet him. As soon as Mr Vajpayee’s convoy came, I started waving my hands frantically, hoping that he would stop but the convoy sped into the Raj Bhawan.Mr Vajpayee had a sense of transparency which is rare to find in politicians.The photograph was prominently published  in an Urdu daily and the next time when Mr Vajpayee came to Lucknow, he called the Press Club secretary and thanked him for the ‘delicious’ food.Pradeep Bhargava, a party leader who drove Mr Vajpayee around in his personal car before the latter became Prime Minister, recalled that the leader always ate ‘mishri’ (crystallized sugar) before addressing a meeting.Political tolerance was an integral part of Mr Vajpayee’s nature. He immediately summoned the district magistrate and asked him to restore my house to me.”Mr Vajpayee, known for his excellent oratory skills, infused his speeches with anecdotes and emotional optimism that made people wait for hours to hear him. I cannot say anything more at this point of time”, said an emotionally distraught leader. So I went and sat behind a car near the gate of the Raj Bhawan.

The next morning, people were shocked to find the pit filled with water. Mr Vajpayee said he had seen me and inquired about my problem.Sadia Khan, a 50-year-old widow, recalls how her house had been usurped by her brother-in-law after she lost her husband in 2000 and none of the officials helped her because the brother-in-law was politically well connected.D03. I was disappointed but ten minutes later, a police official came and said Mr Vajpayee wanted to meet me.“Atal ji called me his ‘saarthi’ (driver) and was always sensitive towards the common man. In 1999 elections, Mr Vajpayee pulled up party workers in Amethi for coining a slogan “Pope Raj, Rome Raj , nahin chalega, nahin chalega’  against Mrs Sonia Gandhi who was then contesting her first election from AmethiIn Lucknow, former minister Lalji Tandon was Mr Vajpayee’s representative as well as his closest associate. He would wait in the queue to cast his vote and never flaunted his VIP status”, he said.In 1999, after he became Prime Minister, Mr Vajpayee was invited for a ‘Meet the Press’ programme at the UP Press Club.Lucknow: It was on China Freestanding Bathtubs a sultry afternoon in 1999 that the road to the district collectorate was packed to capacity.

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