Jawaharlal Nehru predicted Atal Bihari Vajpayee would become PM 'one day'
New Delhi : Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had quite a few things in common. Both Nehru and Vajpayee were the first leader from their respective parties to become the Prime Minister of India. As incumbent prime minister, Nehru had predicted that Vajpayee would occupy his seat "one day".
Before joining politics, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a journalist. He worked for newspapers like Rashtra Dharma of RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay, Panchjanya (the RSS mouthpiece in Hindi) and dailies - Veer Arjun and Swadesh.
Four years after becoming an RSS pracharak (full-time worker), Vajpayee got associated with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (precursor to the BJP) in 1951. He was the political secretary to Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the BJS founder-president, when the latter launched campaign against the government's permit order for entering Jammu and Kashmir.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the one to pack the baggage for Mookerjee and saw him off at the Delhi railway station on 8 May 1953 as the BJS leader left on a mission to enter Jammu and Kashmir defying the entry permit order. Mookerjee was arrested on the Jammu and Kashmir border. He was found dead on 23 June in Srinagar jail under mysterious circumstances.
Vajpayee carried Mookerjee's message - "there can't be two law codes (vidhaan), two chiefs (pradhaan) and two symbols (nishaan) - for a bigger agitation to the rank and file of the party. Vajpayee became a full-time member of the BJS in 1953 after Mookerjee's death.
Vajpayee saw a meteoric rise in the BJS, which nominated him as a candidate in 1955 by-election for the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat, which had fallen vacant following resignation of Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the sister of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Vajpayee's election campaign was noted for his impressive oratorical skills. He finished third in the bypoll.
Two years later, Vajpayee was nominated from three Lok Sabha seats in the second general elections by the BJS. Vajpayee won from Balrampur, finished runner-up in Lucknow and lost deposit at Mathura. Coming from a small party against the Congress of Pandit Nehru, Vajpayee performed exceptionally well as a debutant parliamentarian.
Vajpayee got the attention of Pandit Nehru with the range of questions that he raised in the Lok Sabha, speeches that he delivered and interventions that he made in the proceedings of the House. His range varied from international developments like German Unification to domestic laws.
Pandit Nehru was so influenced with his eloquence in Hindi that in 1957 he predicted Vajpayee to be the prime minister of India in future. While introducing Vajpayee to a foreign dignitary, Nehru said, "This young man one day will become the country's prime minister." Nehru's prediction came true almost 40 years later in 1990s.
Vajpayee, despite having told Nehru to "have a split personality", had tremendous respect for the first prime minister. When Vajpayee became the external affairs minister in 1977, he returned the favour that Nehru might have done by making "the PM prediction".
As Vajpayee was set to take charge of the external affairs ministry, the bureaucrats got busy with removing all the signs of Congress rule in the office as the Janata Party had won on a huge anti-Indira anti-Congress wave. On entering his office, Vajpayee was quick to notice a blank spot on the wall.
Historian Ramchandra Guha has quoted Vajpayee as telling his secretary, "This is where Panditji's portrait used to be. I remember it from my earlier visits to the room. Where has it gone? I want it back." Pandit Nehru remains the longest-serving foreign minister of India - 17 years.
courtesy : indiatoday.in
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Mamata asks TMC nominees not to leave counting centres as EC data shows BJP leading
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday urged TMC candidates and agents to remain vigilant and not to leave counting centres, alleging that there was a "game plan" by the BJP and the Election Commission to show the saffron party taking a lead in the early trends of counting.
In a video message issued during the counting of votes, the TMC supremo appealed to party workers to stay put and not to lose morale.
"I appeal to everyone that neither TMC candidates nor counting agents should abandon counting centres," she said.
As trends on the Election Commission website indicated the BJP leading in 188 seats against the TMC's 94, Banerjee maintained that her party was still ahead in a significant number of constituencies.
"We are still ahead in 170 seats, but I request everyone not to lose hope," she said, adding that there were "around 70 to 100 seats where we are leading, but they are not sharing the data of those seats".
"A false narrative is being spread," she alleged.
The chief minister accused the Election Commission of "not declaring results or leads" in areas where the TMC was ahead.
"This is a game plan by the EC and the BJP as it (poll panel) is not declaring results or leads in areas where we are leading," she said.
Banerjee also alleged irregularities in the counting process at some locations.
"In several places, counting has been stopped after the first two to three rounds. In Kalyani, we have caught seven machines with severe anomalies," she claimed.
She further alleged that TMC workers were being "harassed with the help of central forces" and that party offices were being "vandalised and forcefully captured".
"With the help of central forces, they are harassing and torturing AITC workers. Our offices have been vandalised," she said, also alleging that voter list revision exercises were "purposefully done to target seats where we were strong".
Seeking to reassure party workers, Banerjee said more rounds of counting were yet to take place and urged them to stay firm.
"Fourteen to eighteen rounds of counting will happen. You will surely emerge victorious. Don't be afraid; fight like tigers," she said.
Her remarks came as counting trends suggested that the BJP was leading in 188 seats and had crossed the halfway mark of 148 in the 294-member assembly, pointing to a potential shift in the state's political landscape.
Counting for 293 constituencies was underway with postal ballots, followed by EVM votes.
Officials cautioned that trends could change as more rounds are counted, and final results would be known later in the day.
জরুরি বার্তা pic.twitter.com/Uc82oihwEL
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 4, 2026
