Tuesday Post

Today I am writing about a politician who is always in the news for last 5 years, and his political career has gone through ups and downs. He has been always a much maligned leader who has been involved in many court cases against him over the years. He was jailed, exiled from his home state. In the end courts had to free him, as most of cases proved to be politically motivated. Presently he is the most trusted aide of PM, member of Rajya Sabha & BJP president, and he is

 Amit Shah

He is a politician from Gujarat and the current President of BJP. He was elected to Gujarat Assembly from Sarkhej in 1997(by elections), 1998, 2002, 2007. He is a close associate of Narendra Modi and held a number of portfolio in Gujarat govt during Modi’s tenure as CM. He was elected to Gujarat  Assembly from Naranpura constituency.

During Modi’s regime as CM of Gujarat, Amit Shah emerged as one of the most powerful leaders in Gujarat. After winning the 2002 elections, he became the youngest minister in the Modi government, and was given multiple portfolios like, Law and Justice, Prison, Border Security, Civil Defence, Excise, Transport, Prohibition, Home Guards, Gram Rakshak Dal, Police Housing, and Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs.

In 2004, the Congress-led Central Government announced its intention to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act,( POTA) calling it regressive. Amit Shah piloted the Gujarat Control of  Organised  Crime (Amendment) Bill through Gujarat state assembly amid an opposition walk-out. He was also instrumental in enacting Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act which made religious conversions difficult in the Hindu-majority Gujarat. His opponents argued that the Act went against the rights guaranteed by the Indian Constitution but Shah defended the bill, calling it a measure against forced conversions.

In 2010, CBI accused Amit Shah for killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife and Prajapati. The case was that 2 Marble Traders of Rajasthan were harassed by Sohrabuddin for protection money. The marble traders paid Amit Shah and DIG Vanjara, SP Pandian and the plan was hatched to eliminate Sohrabuddin. In the court Shah dismissed all the allegations as politically motivated. Amit Shah was arrested on 25 July 2010 in connection with the Sohrabuddin case.When Shah applied for bail, the CBI raised concerns that he would use his political power to prevent justice from taking its course. The Gujarat High Court granted him bail three months after his arrest, on Friday, 29 October 2010. However, the next day, when the courts were closed, Justice Aftab Alam took a petition at his residence to bar him from entering Gujarat. Shah was thus forcibly exiled from the state from 2010 to 2012. He and his wife moved to a room in Gujarat Bhavan, Delhi Later, the Supreme Court canceled his bail on a CBI plea. In September 2012, the Supreme Court granted him bail, and allowed him to return to Gujarat. He then contested and won the 202 Assembly Elections from Naranpura constituency. In the end CBI gave clean chit to Shah.

After  Modi was declared the Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP, Shah’s influence also went up in the party. Modi & Shah were  accused of sidelining other BJP leaders such as LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswnt Sing. By this time, Shah had gained recognition as an excellent election campaign manager, and had been dubbed a modern day Chanakya and master strategist, Shah was appointed as a BJP general secretary, and was given charge of  UP. He was chosen not by Modi, but by Rajnath Singh, then BJP President, who had been impressed by the skills that Shah displayed in wresting control of various Congress-controlled organizations in Gujarat.

Shah was given charge for India’s largest and most politically crucial state, Uttar Pradesh on Jun 12 2013, for the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections.  Since February 2012, Shah was spending considerable amount of time in UP, trying to understand the reasons for the BJP’s loss and  Samajwadi Party’s winning performance in the 2012 Assembly Elections. Shah realised that the voters were dissatisfied with the SP, which he believed had failed to keep its election promises after the win..

Shah personally looked after the candidate selection, emphasising on the candidate’s local clout and winning potential as the only criteria for selection, as opposed to the candidate’s party loyalty or ideology. His team estimated that only 35% of the BJP’s traditional supporters had actually voted in the UP elections. Therefore, he focused on door-to-door campaigning at the booth-level. He set up a 7-to-8 member management committee for each of the 140,000 voting booths in the state. For each booth, his team collected lists of voters and reached out to them. Shah’s team used 450 GPS-enabled mobile vans to reach out to the masses in remote areas, where media reach was negligible. Shah personally covered 76 out of 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. He also convinced  Modi for contesting election from Varanasi.

Amit Shah also convinced Modi to take support of RSS volunteers at  grassroot level for campaigning, although RSS was not involved officially in electioneering. But their volunteers were used to cross check BJP workers’claim of completing the targets given to them.

Shah also helped organize Big rallies for Modi. Like other major political parties, BJP provisioned one van per village to transport people to the rally venue. However, unlike others, Shah decided that BJP would not provide money for hiring these vehicles. Instead, he declared that the party workers organizing the transportation would be made the leaders of the BJP units in their respective villages. This strategy ensured that a number of local village leaders developed a stake in Modi’s victory

He  also played an important role in BJP’s election campaigning strategy outside UP. He focused on building Modi’s larger-than-life image as a strong leader. At times, he opposed even Modi on several strategic campaigning issues. Shah insisted that BJP must not divert from the Modi-versus-all tactic. Shah was also responsible for forging BJP’s alliances with regional parties like PMK in Tamilnadu.

UP’s poll result took all the pollster by real surprise, as BJP & allies won 73 out of 80 seats, only 2 seats went to Congrss (Rahul & Sonia Gandhi) and 5 seats to SP ( Mulayam Singh + his family members).

Rajnath Singh who was BJP’s President at the time 2014 General elections and as he was inducted in Union Cabinet by PM Modi, he resigned from Presidentship. Amit Shah was unanimously chosen as BJP’s President by Party’s Parliamentry Board. Under Amit Shah’s leadership BJP won elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, J&K,  and Assam but lost in Delhi and Bihar. He was re elected as BJP’s President in 2016.  BJP won the elections in Gujarat, HP, Goa & Assam in 2017, but lost in Punjab, where they were in alliance with Akali Dal. Recently under his leadership BJP lost elections in 3 major states of MP, Chhatisgarh & Rajasthan, where they were in power. Does it mean that his charisma and line of poll strategy is fading, only upcoming general elections will be able to give the answer.

Awaiting your views/feed backs/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumabi, India

19th Feb, 2019