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Amit Shah never seems to be in a hurry, but that hasn’t stopped his march to the top echelons of politics, whether in Gujarat or now in Delhi. He has been elevated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president at the age of 50, a youngster by the standards of Indian politics.
Behind Shah’s calm exterior is a man with an ever ticking mind, somebody who weighs each word he utters, is a patient listener and frequently draws out even the lowliest of party workers.
These qualities helped Shah overcome the challenges of a deeply divided BJP unit in the key electoral swing state of Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Shah won over younger leaders and made the old guard in that state practically irrelevant to the party’s fortunes.
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It is a template that Shah, with the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is likely to replicate across state units of BJP, as well as nationally. It is expected that Shah will not just fill the vacancies in the party hierarchy created by incumbents joining the government as ministers but, according to people in the know, is set to completely rejig the organisation by picking younger leaders for key posts, just as his mentor Narendra Modi had done, when he became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001, by putting his faith in Shah. Then barely in his late 30s, Shah later went on to become one of the most powerful ministers in the Gujarat government.
On Wednesday, outgoing BJP president and Home Minister Rajnath Singh lauded Shah’s ability to think imaginative managerial skills. Singh said he had stepped down as BJP president honouring the party’s tradition of ‘one man, one post’. Singh announced BJP’s parliamentary board, its highest decision-making body, had unanimously appointed Shah, currently party general secretary and a Gujarat MLA, as the 10th president of the party. “It is the dawn of a new era in the BJP,” one of the younger leaders later said. Shah’s ascension to the top post in BJP seemed only a matter of time after the Lok Sabha election results. Narendra Modi had led the party to a historic victory, and Shah, his close aide who had been given charge of Uttar Pradesh in June 2013, put his famed organisational skills to good use to ensure BJP and its ally Apna Dal won an unprecedented 73 of 80 seats. It was common to find BJP workers in Uttar Pradesh telling doubting journalists how Shah had led BJP to eight successive electoral victories in Gujarat — from civil to Lok Sabha elections.
The only possible hitch to Shah’s ascension was that both Modi and he hail from the same state. During Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as prime minister, BJP followed the practice that the PM and party president shouldn’t be from the same state. So, Vajpayee’s tenure saw such party presidents as Kushabhau Thakre (1998 to 2000), Bangaru Laxman (2000-01), K Jana Krishnamurthy (2001-02) and M Venkaiah Naidu (2002-04). They were all experienced politicians but with little mass base or rapport with the PM or standing in BJP strongholds of the Hindi heartland. This led to a weakening of the party organisation, which eventually resulted in electoral losses.
According to sources, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh initially suggested the possibility that the party should consider other candidates along with Shah as party president. Names of vice-president J P Nadda and Rajasthan leader Om Prakash Mathur were floated.
However, the Sangh eventually relented, conscious that Shah’s appointment would avoid the possibility of two power centres — of the PM and the party president — working at cross-purposes but also help strengthen the party organisation. But Sangh deputed two of its key leaders, Ram Madhav and Shiv Prakash, to coordinate between RSS and the party.
This is the first time that a serving Sangh office bearer like Madhav has been given a lateral transfer to the party. Significantly, Madhav and Shah are nearly the same age. Shah’s appointment is evidence of RSS heralding a generational shift in BJP by bringing in those born in the 1960s, just as it did in 2013 by helping those born after independence — like Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi — ascend to crucial positions in the party.
Shah’s first task will be filling the vacancies in the party organisation. Captain Abhimanyu is likely to play a more important role in the party organisation, as is Sudhanshu Trivedi, who has not been keen on joining his mentor Rajnath Singh.
His immediate challenges will be winning the Assembly elections scheduled for later this year in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. The BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has been out of power in Maharasthra for 15 years. He would also need to convince the Delhi party unit to agree to a poll, instead of trying to form a government by engineering defections in other parties. Jammu & Kashmir, where BJP won a historic three of six seats in the Lok Sabha elections, is also slated for Assembly polls early next year. Long-term challenges will be strengthening the party base in West Bengal and Odisha. After Shah’s appointment as party president, Modi on Wednesday tweeted how “Amit bhai started his journey as an ordinary karyakarata and has repeatedly proved himself through tireless hard work and determination”. He is confident that the party will reach greater heights under Shah’s presidency.
THE HIGHS AND LOWS
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1995: Elected for the first time as MLA from Ahmedabad’s Sarkhej Assembly seat
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2003: Appointed home minister of Gujarat (holds this portfolio till 2010)
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2010: Jul: Arrested by CBI for his alleged involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case
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Oct: Gujarat HC grants bail
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Nov: SC directs Shah to stay out of Gujarat
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Sep 2012: SC allows Shah to return to Gujarat
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May 2013: Appointed general secretary of BJP and UP incharge for LS polls
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Nov: Is accused of snooping on a woman at the behest of one ‘saheb’ using the Gujarat police machinery
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May 2014: BJP wins 73 of UP’s 80 seats; Shah gets the credit
- Jul: Appointed president of the Bharatiya Janata Party
