Vajpayee, who died aged 93 on August 16, has had a political career that began with the Quit India movement in 1942 when he was just 18 years old.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's journey as a parliamentarian started in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur. In 1957, Balrampur sent Vajpayee, who was later to become the country's prime minister thrice, to the Lok Sabha for the first time.
He lost the election when he contested again in 1962, but was re-elected from Balrampur Lok Sabha constituency in 1967.
Vajpayee and Vidhan Sabha candidate Surajlal Gupta campaigned together in its Utraula assembly segment in 1967, Jana Sangh worker Ratanlal Gupta, who accompanied them, said.
Ratanlal Gupta said Vajpayee didn't care about caste and religion, and recalled the time when they stopped at the home of Haider Ali in Mahdeya village.
"It had a good population of Brahmins and we informed him that by having food at his place, his Brahmin vote bank might slip away, Gupta said.
But Vajpayee laughed this away, punning on the Hindi word khisakna' or slipping away.
"Jo khisakna tha, pet me khisak gaya. Ab vote khiske ya rahe, Vajpayee said, telling his companions that food had already slipped into his stomach, it didn't matter now if the voters slipped away.
"I will not become a Muslim by having food at Ali's place," Vajpayee told the party worker.
While Vajpayee won the Lok Sabha seat, Surajlal Gupta lost the assembly polls held simultaneously.
Former MLA Sukhdev Prasad, considered close to Vajpayee, also has a story to tell.
During the 1957 Lok Sabha polls, Motipur resident Hasan Dawood campaigned for Vajpayee, carrying the Jana Sangh flag, Prasad said.
The MLA recalled a Delhi visit years later when they both met Vajpayee, who was by then the external affairs minister.
"On meeting Dawood, Atalji hugged him, Prasad said.
As Vajpayee was going abroad, he asked Dawood to accompany him up to the airport so that they could talk, the former MLA said.
He said Dawood's family still remembers Vajpayee, he said.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was cremated in Delhi on Friday.
Vajpayee, who died aged 93 on August 16, has had a political career that began with the Quit India movement in 1942 when he was just 18 years old.
However, it was only 11 years later in 1953 that he contested his first election. According to Yashwant Deskhmukh, whose father, social activist Yadav Rao Deshmukh, worked closely with Vajpayee, he lost a 1953 bye-election, which also happened to be his first in Lucknow. The election took place after Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit resigned as Lucknow MP to join the United Nations General Assembly.
“I know this fact for sure because of many personal anecdotes on that particular 1953 election told to me personally by Baba as well as the man himself. 1957 was the first election that Atalji won to become Lok Sabha MP but 1953 was the first he contested,” he tweeted.
On Friday evening, Vajpayee's mortal remains were consigned to the flames. Foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya lit the pyre as cries of "Atal Bihari Amar Rahe" reverberated.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh were among the thousands of people at the Rashtriya Smriti Sthal on the banks of the Yamuna, the BJP patriarch's final resting place.
The former prime minister was accorded a state funeral with thousands of people joining his last journey.
Several foreign dignitaries, including Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuk, Pakistan's Minister of Law Ali Zafar, Nepal's Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali and Acting Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka Lakshman Kiriella, attended Vajpayee's funeral.
Amid sultry weather conditions, thousands of people walked along the over seven km-long route with some showering petals at the carriage.
An astute politician known for his great oratory skills, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee won the hearts of many across the political spectrum with his wit and sobriety and was by far one of the most respected leaders in the country's history.
(With PTI inputs)
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