Punjab CM visits Vajpayee's residence

New Delhi : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday visited the residence of the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee here to pay his respects to the family.

The Chief Minister spent about half-an-hour at the residence and also penned some of his feelings for Vajpayee, whom he remembered meeting for the first time in 1970, in the visitors' book.

The Chief Minister met Vajpayee's foster daughter Namita and son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya, along with other family members, to express his condolences, according to an official spokesperson.

Recalling Vajpayee's 1970 Punjab visit, Amarinder said: "Atal-ji had come there to campaign for him and spent three days in Patiala".

The Chief Minister reminisced that he had come out of the Indian Army in 1968 and was contesting his first election, a bypoll from Dakala in 1970 after the sitting legislator Basant Singh was killed by Naxalites.

The Chief Minister remembered the former Prime Minister as a great leader, an excellent statesman, a dignified politician and a fine human being.

His death has left a vacuum that would be hard to fill, said Amarinder Singh.