From being one of the earliest members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh Vajpayee blossomed into a leading opposition MP by the late 1960s went on to become external affairs minister in the shortlived Janata government and finally in 1999 to head the first noncongress government to complete a full Term in Office. That it was a coalition government made the feat all the more remarkable and testifies to the fact that though wedded to a rightwing political ideology Vajpayee did not believe in the politics of exclusion. A protege of Jana Sangh stalwarts like Syama Prasad Mukherjee and deep Dayal Upadhyaya Vajpayee won the admiration of Jawaharlal Nehru was consulted by his daughter Indira Gandhi whom he never lacked the courage to criticizeand befriended by fiery trade unionists George Fernandes even before they became political allies.