Nagpur: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was going strong and his age factor would in no way hamper the poll campaign of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan said today (Jan 18, 2004).

"He is the great grand-father of all world politicians - be it George Bush or Vladimir Putin or anybody who are in their sixties," Mahajan said replying to a question over Vajpayee's age when he would be 85 at the end of the 14th Lok Sabha.

Mahajan, who was in Nagpur to attend the state executive of BJP unit in Maharashtra, said Vajpayee's campaigning schedules are planned in such a manner that he should not exert. He is the only Indian leader who knows the canvas of the country very well, right from spiritual leaders to historical figures.

Dismissing media reports that BJP will not cross 150 LS seats, he said, on the contrary, Congress will not go beyond a century in the coming polls.

Coming down on Congress alliance in the past, Mahajan said Congress never allowed any alliance to complete its term. Choudhary Charan Singh, H D Deve Gowda, Chandrashekhar and I K Gujral Governments collapsed when Congress pulled out of it, he added.

Mahajan ridiculed Congress claim that no non-Congress Government can complete its term, saying the BJP Government of Vajpayee had proved its mettle.