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Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Kishenchand Advani
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Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Kishenchand Advani have not only emerged as the top leaders of the Bhartiya Janata Party (the erstwhile Jan Sangh), but they have been close friends as well.

When Indira Gandhi proclaimed Emergency on June 25, 1975, the two leaders were in Bangalore to attend a meeting of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament.

Though their arrest was formally announced on the night of June 25 itself, in reality they were not arrested until 10 am on June 26 from the legislators' hostel where they were having their breakfast and waiting for the police to arrive.

The two leaders wrote out a joint statement condemning the Emergency before being driven to High Ground police station.

In prison, Vajpayee took on the responsibility of supervising the cooking of food for himself and Advani, as he loved cooking and eating, during their 19-month-long stay in prison.

Both borrowed books from the jail library and caught up with the reading they had been missing so badly.

Advani also kept in touch with the leaders of his party who had not been arrested and asked them to protest against the Emergency in whatever manner they could.

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