Atal Bihari Vajpayee

Vajpayee's first government lost a confidence vote by a single vote in 1999 when a southern ally withdrew. He rebuilt the National Democratic Alliance with more than twenty parties and became the first prime minister outside Congress to complete a full term. To hold it together, his party set aside its most contentious demands, and the coalition delivered the Golden Quadrilateral motorway network and a rural roads programme. Critics note the 2002 Gujarat violence happened under a state government of his own party.