New Delhi, Feb 8 : Sonia Gandhi today went to see Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a confluence of political circumstances making her the first political leader to visit him after he was put on ventilator.

The Congress chief was, however, not able to meet the 84-year-old leader who is fighting a serious lung infection and is under sedation. She left in 10 minutes after speaking to his foster-daughter Namita, but in a country where gestures and rituals count, her visit will not go unnoticed.

An AIIMS administrator said tonight Vajpayee’s condition had neither improved nor deteriorated.

“He continues to be under treatment in intensive care and on a ventilator. He’s had visitors — but only doctors, staff and a few family members have been allowed to visit his room,” said D.K. Sharma, the AIIMS medical superintendent.

A trifle rattled by Sonia’s visit, the BJP — which has converged in Nagpur for its two-day national council — pleaded that such gestures should not be politicised.

Spokesperson Arun Jaitley said BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Rajnath Singh had visited Vajpayee on Thursday before leaving for Nagpur. Rajnath would go straight to AIIMS after returning to New Delhi tomorrow, he added.

Vajpayee’s condition had worsened on Friday, but by then the BJP’s national council had begun its two-day session. This, along with the distance, prevented party leaders from paying him a visit. Advani and Rajnath tracked his medical status from Nagpur on the phone.

“Whenever such an occasion arises, the Congress president looks beyond party considerations. It’s a great gesture. After all, Mr Vajpayee is a national leader and we look forward to his coming back with full recovery,” said Congress chief spokesperson M. Veerappa Moily.

Although Sonia’s relations with Vajpayee were uneven, she was never found wanting when his government faced a crunch situation that called for a consensual political response.

Through the six years the NDA was in power, BJP leaders would often joke that before leaving home for Parliament or South Block Vajpayee would genuflect before a portrait of Sonia hidden in a corner of his room.

The reason: for Vajpayee, it was the leader of the Opposition, not so much the RSS and BJP hardliners, who had his government on a leash.

The Congress never brought a no-confidence motion until the NDA was in its fourth year. When Sonia did use the weapon in August 2003, neither she nor the Opposition seriously believed they would bring down the ruling coalition.

It was just a strategy to prove Sonia could lead Parliament from the front, having already proved her skills at running the Congress and winning quite a few Assembly elections.

Sonia’s new found confidence was reflected in the hour-long speech she made --- her longest --- in Parliament. She attacked the government point by point so convincingly that parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party, who had no love lost for her, voted with the Congress.

Vajpayee used the occasion to reinforce his grip over the BJP and the NDA.

A month later, he praised Sonia so liberally at an exclusive gathering of Indian Americans in New York that a late BJP leader, who darted barbs at him now and then, wondered why he had not hummed a line from the Bollywood number, You are my Sonia.

Vajpayee was quoted as saying: “I was a little sad. As foreign minister, I have never let politics interfere with foreign policy.”

He welcomed Sonia’s meeting with Ariel Sharon when the then Israeli Prime Minister visited India, despite protests from the Left and some Congress allies.

“She lived up to the image of a leader of the Opposition. I thanked her,” he said.

Sonia’s move was hailed by the NDA government which had started to seriously cement relations with Israel and was keen to carry the political establishment in what was considered a “milestone” in India’s foreign policy.

At the same New York forum, Vajpayee recalled that when Parliament was under siege in December 2001 Sonia phoned him at home. “Where are you, are you okay? I am okay, are you okay too?” he quoted her as asking.

“This is the greatness of Indian democracy. We have differences in our politics but the whole world also believes that India is moving unitedly ahead,” he declared.

During the December 1999 Kandahar hijack, Sonia spoke on behalf of the Opposition at an all-party meeting, emphasising that this was not the time to split hairs over culpability and accountability but to ensure the passengers on IC814 were safe.

On his part, Vajpayee did not always reciprocate in kind. In 2001, when the Congress sought a joint parliamentary probe into the Tehelka disclosures, he not only rejected it but also took potshots at Sonia for demanding one.

She sat calmly through the speech but fumed at Advani after the House adjourned. Vajpayee had left by then. She said she was “tired” of Vajpayee’s “sermons” and he could not have one set of rules for himself as leader of the Opposition and another for her.

Two days later, Vajpayee defended himself against what he termed Sonia’s “emotional outburst”.

But the Congress calibrated its attack on Tehelka and lumped the re-induction of George Fernandes after he was dropped briefly from the cabinet.