Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday expressed his condolences for former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who died on Thursday, and said that the latter had led politics with highest standards and stood tall as a role model for the country and the world.

In his condolence message, Rao said Vajpayee was as a great parliamentarian. He described Vajpayee's demise as a great loss.

"He was a liberalist, humanist, poet, orator and a man of simplicity. He stood for what he has believed for his entire lifetime," the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President said.

Meanwhile, the state government said that it had declared a holiday on Friday as a mark of respect.

“The government hereby declares that Friday shall be a general holiday to all the government offices, schools, colleges and institutions in the state as a mark of respect in of the state funeral at New Delhi of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who passed away on Thursday,” Telangana Chief Secretary SK Joshi said in a notification that was issued.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice Presidednt M. Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday led a host of leaders in paying homage to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose body was lying in state at his residence after it was brought from the hopsital.

Officers from three forces draped the body in the Tricolour before enabling leaders and people to pay their last respects at his residence in central Delhi's Krishna Menon Marg.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accompanied by his wife also placed a wreath and paid homage to Vajpayee. 

Vajpayee, a founder-member of the BJP and the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete a full term in office, died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Thursday after prolonged illness. He was 93.

IANS inputs