Atal Bihari Vajpayee's little-known political trivia of '13 days'

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJPs former numero uno and the first Prime Minister from the saffron party have a little-known political trivia of ‘13 days’. Vajpayee in his first tenure as PM served from 16 May to 1 June 1996 — a total of just 13 days. Vajpayee also holds the record of being the Prime Minister serving for the shortest time in the country.

Vajpayee was an adept orator, eminent poet and supreme in his standards as a politician who was amicable among all. He was the foreign minister in the Morarji cabinet and later became the prime minister for three times.

He became the president of the party when BJP was officially formed in 1980. Vajpayee is also the first BJP Prime Minister to complete a full term in office. The country celebrates his birthday on December 25 as Good Governance Day. In 2015, Vajpayee was conferred India's highest civilian honour — Bharat Ratna, by the then-President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.

Gulzarilal Nanda was another prime minister who served 13 days in office when he was made the caretaker Prime Minister. Even after becoming the Prime Minister for the second time in 1998, Vajpayee failed to complete a full term in office.