Vajpayee turns 80

Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday turned 80 years old.

He said in Gwalior that he planned to do things he had not done in his political career and would complete unfinished tasks in 2005.

With a motley audience regaling his poetry session, Vajpayee said his birthday after the 1998 nuclear blasts at Pokhran was his most cherished.

Asked about his newfound aggression in Parliament, the former PM said he wanted to tell people that he was "still around".

He also assured Babulal Gaur, standing close, that he would continue to be the Madhya Pradesh chief minister despite the revocation of Uma Bharti's suspension from the Bharatiya Janata Party.