 "Amit Shah is BJP's new president")
Amit Shah, a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday became the new BJP chief, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced here.
Rajnath Singh said that he tendered his resignation as party chief to the BJP parliamentary board, which decided that Amit Shah will head the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Addressing a press conference, Rajnath Singh lauded Amit Shah's "management skills" and credited him with the BJP's success in Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh.
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Senior party leaders — Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh — had reached a consensus on Shah’s name as the next party president late last month but awaited the approval of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Sangh’s working committee met in Dhar in Madhya Pradesh earlier this week and gave its nod to the choice of Shah.
The RSS has also sent two of its key leaders, Ram Madhav and Shiv Prakash, to work for the BJP. The two are expected to handle organisational issues of the party. The developments are an attempt by the Sangh to prevent a repeat of experiences during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance government. Then the party organisation was thought to have weakened with most of its leaders having joined the government.
The RSS and BJP hope Shah would script a repeat in Maharashtra legislative Assembly elections of his stellar performance of leading the party to winning 73 (including two seats of ally Apna Dal) of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the Lok Sabha elections. The success in UP formed the backbone of the simple majority the BJP won in the elections. The Maharashtra elections, with Haryana and Jharkhand, are set for later this year. Shah is the party's incharge for Maharashtra. Jammu and Kashmir is set to hold elections early next year.