Once Atal bihari Vajpayee was heading for the food counter even though he was on a strict diet. Bureaucrats introduced him to Madhuri Dixit who was in attendance.

The Centre on Thursday pushed for reservation in promotions in government jobs for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as it told the Supreme Court that members of these communities had suffered social exclusion for centuries and can't be excluded from the benefit as they are backward.

BJP veteran L.K. Advani, who had a long association with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and had jointly built the party from scratch, on Thursday expressed grief over his death, observing that the former Prime Minister will be remembered as the pioneer of the first-ever stable non-Congress coalition government at the Centre.

As former Indian Prime Minister A.B Vajpayee breathed his last on Thursday, state government has declared holiday for schools and colleges across the state, it is said in a press release.

Paying rich tributes to former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday described him as a "strong binding force of the National Democratic Alliance".

Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday expressed his "deepest condolences" on the death of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Thursday announced that all the schools and offices in the national capital will remain closed on Friday as a mark of respect to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday expressed his condolences on the death of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.