august 2014

Point
Out
POLITICAL report
AMIT SHAH, MODI’S MAN
Amit Shah, who joined BJP in 1986, a year
before Modi joined the party, was active with
BJP’s youth wing the Bharatiya Janata Yuva
Morcha (BJYM) since 1983 in Gujarat. He
gradually rose in the BJYM hierarchy becoming its
state vice-president and later campaigned for senior
BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani in Gandhinagar during
the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.
When Keshubhai Patel formed the first BJP
government in Gujarat In 1995, he faced trouble
from a strong Congress. It was here that Modi and
Shah teamed up to work a strategy to wean away
influential Congress leaders from the rural areas into
the BJP. Initially, no one noticed but the impact it had
on Congress was over the years in most places in
the state and district-level, it was left with no second
command.
Thus the friendship of 80’s between Shah and Modi
worked and continued to pay electoral dividends
when Modi went on to become the state’s Chief
Minister. Modi trusted Shah and entrusted him with
party jobs which he did meticulously. Even in the
decade after post-Godhra riots, the two successfully
weathered the storm and ensured electoral success
for BJP in Gujarat.
Once, Modi moved on to national stage he was quick
to realize that to win general elections comfortably
BJP will have to do well in the Hindi heartland of Uttar
Pradesh and Bihar. He leaned on his trusted aide
Shah putting him in charge of UP, a decision that most
BJP senior leaders though would backfire. But never
a man who stops surprising, Shah weaned a magic
for BJP that led to decimation of not only Congress
but the entire opposition parties in UP.
After achieving “Mission 272” and Modi taking over
as Prime Minister, it was only a matter of time that he
had his lieutenant take charge of party affairs at the
national level.
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August 2014