This comes on the eve of the crucial Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Board meeting on Sunday.
The 93-year-old veteran politician, who died at 05.05 pm, was also put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support on his last day, they said.
Vajpayee had resigned just 13 days after being in power due to lack of numbers.
The prime minister would hold summit level talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Share your thoughts on the PM's contribution to the change in India's outlook.
He said even Vishwa Hindu Parishad had openly said if anyone was to be blamed for the BJP's defeat it was Vajpayee.
Alleging deterioration in the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, Vajpayee had asked BJP workers to carry out a "decisive" agitation to throw out the Samajwadi Party government.
Isak Swu and T Muivah had a one-hour meeting with the former prime minister at his residence.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was among the first to reach the BJP patriarch's 7-Krishna Menon Marg residence to wish him. Senior party L K Advani had called on Vajpayee on Monday evening to wish him as he had to go to Gandhinagar in Gujarat to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as Chief Minister.
The decision appears to have been taken in view of the likely dissolution of Lok Sabha in the first week of next month.
'The NDA leaders expressed total confidence in the prime minister's wisdom in deciding the dates for the polls,' George Fernandes said.
The issue gains importance in view of the recent attempt on the life of President Gen Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad.
According his new year greetings to the country from Goa, the prime minister touched upon Hindutva, saying it is liberating and brooks no ill will, hatred or violence among different communities on any ground.
"It would not be proper for Vajpayeeji to contest and lose. Any other nominee would feel that he contested and lost," Vijay Kumar Malhotra, deputy leader of BJP said in an informal chat with this correspondent.
The Congress on Monday gave a clean chit to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and spiritual preacher Deoraha Baba, whose names figure in the list of those found culpable by the Liberhan Commission, for the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. "Vajpayee's name was not in the conspiracy (to demolish Babri mosque). His name was only in one of the lists," Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said.
The Indian prime minister said end of cross-border terrorism and dismantling of terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan will create the atmosphere for talks.
The prime minister was accompanied by three Union ministers C P Thakur, Bijoya Chakraborty and Ashok Pradhan.
Only in the event of the RSS managing to force Modi into accepting a consensual candidate, will the party not continue to 'being' the 'next Congress', observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Rehman had suggested that the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration could be the basis for normalisation of Indo-Pak ties.
On that fateful day, Narayan, popularly known as JP and a fierce critic of the then-Indira Gandhi government, addressed a massive gathering at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi.
'We want our military tanks in Lahore, missiles in Rawalpindi and the saffron flag in Karachi,' Togadia said at a trishul diksha programme in Delhi.
Here's a quick look at who spoke in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the Operation Sindoor debate.
His observations came as news reports spoke of Modi, the Hindutva icon, being angry with Singh's decision.
Books and films were the bonding factors for his friendship with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Kishenchand Advani said.
Expressing serious concern over "two distinct voices" that have emerged "louder" after the Gujarat election, the prime minister said Hindutva was being projected by "some people in a narrow, rigid and extremist manner."
'Geopolitically and diplomatically it's a very difficult situation for India.'
Prashant Kishor termed as "excessive" the 2 years' imprisonment awarded to Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case.
The VVIP intensive care unit at AIIMS is now reverberating with old Hindi film music with former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who is recuperating here, requesting for the songs to be played on the radio.
Besides Beijing, Vajpayee would travel to Shanghai, China's largest city and commercial hub, and the Buddhist city of Luoyang in central China.
I have been forced to retire at the age of 45. I wanted to go on a pilgrimage, but Advaniji asked me not to go. I have never asked for any post, but was hoping that I would be given some responsibility. But it did not happen."
'Good sense will prevail even on those who are opposing it and together we will fulfil Paramhans's dream,'
Before leaving for a six-day visit to China, the prime minister said India accorded 'top priority' to ties with China.
