Vajpayee missed at BJP meet

INDORE - Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee may not be active in politics anymore but the former prime minister was missed by one and all at the party’s national conclave here.

“We are missing him,” said new party president Nitin Gadkari on the first day of the national executive meet Wednesday at Kushabhau Thakrey Nagar, a sprawling tented township 10 km from the city.

Quoting a line from one of Vajpayee’s poems “Chote man se koi bada nahin hota, toote man se koi khada nahin hota (Those with a small heart cannot become big, those with a broken one can’t stand up), Gadkari asked his party cadres to keep their morale up.

Former party president Rajnath Singh said: “Atalji’s absence is regrettable. He may not be physically present here but he is always in our minds. We all wish him a speedy recovery so that he can keep on guding us in future.”

Vajapayee’s face also figured prominently in most of the posters and banners seen at the meet.