Vajpayee continues to show improvement: AIIMS sources

Former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's condition is improving and he is likely to be discharged soon, sources at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here said today.

The BJP stalwart is admitted to the ICU of the cardio-thoracic centre at the hospital and has shown improvements in the last 10 days.

"He continues to show improvement and is being monitored by a team of doctors," an AIIMS official said.

The 93-year-old leader was admitted to the premier hospital on June 11 with a kidney tract infection, chest congestion and urine output on the lower side.

He was immediately evaluated by a team of doctors and put on injectable antibiotics.

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

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Vice President Vankaiah Naidu and several chief ministers and union ministers have visited Vajpayee at the AIIMS over the past 11 days.

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 As his health deteriorated, he had slowly withdrawn himself from public life and was confined to his residence for years.