Prime Minister Modi visits ailing Vajpayee in AIIMS, officials may release his health statement

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday visited ailing former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in AIIMS, Delhi. Union Minister Smriti Irani also paid a visit earlier today. 

According to reports, medical officials at AIIMS may issue a statement on Vajpayee's health later in the day. 

Union Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP President Amit Shah also visited Vajpayee in AIIMS last week. 

Vajpayee was admitted to the hospital on June 11 with a kidney tract infection, chest congestion and urine output on the lower side.

A number of senior political leaders, from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, to BJP chief Amit Shah, and former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, visited Vajpayee at AIIMS in June.  

Vajpayee, a diabetic, has one functional kidney. He had suffered a stroke in 2009 that weakened his cognitive abilities. Subsequently, he developed dementia.

He was thrice elected as prime minister between 1996 and 1999 and is the only non-Congress prime minister to complete a full term of five years, from 1999 to 2004. As his health deteriorated, he slowly withdrew himself from public life and remained confined to his residence.