NEW DELHI: The crowning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s closest confidant Amit Shah as the new BJP president capped a phenomenal and rapid rise for the party’s key election strategist who crafted an unprecedented victory in Uttar Pradesh.
In the process, the controversial yet politically suave Shah, 50, scripted history by becoming the youngest president of the party in which veterans have called the shots since its inception.
Home minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as the BJP president and declared Shah as his successor.
Addressing a news conference, Rajnath Singh lauded Amit Shah’s “management skills” and credited him with the BJP’s success in Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh.
Considered an invaluable deputy to any neta, he has taken less than a year to catapult himself from a Gujarat BJP strongman to the party’s supremo on the national stage.
Most leaders in the BJP agree that Shah, who was associated with the RSS in his early days, has earned every bit of his success.
What worked eventually in favour of Shah was his extra-ordinary political performance in UP where as BJP’s general secretary in-charge he led the party to a dream run wresting 71 of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats in the politically crucial state.
Together with Apna Dal, a new ally which Shah got on board, the BJP won 73 seats in the state leaving a handful for the ruling SP and the Congress in the state.
Shah’s organizational skills came in handy for the BJP in bordering Bihar as well where the party forged alliances with the LJP and OBC strongman Upender Kushwaha to score a staggering 22 alone and 31 out of 40 seats with allies and reducing the state’s incumbent JD(U) government to a virtual naught.
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