Amit Shah : Scripting BJP's Success
October 21, 2014
If Narendra Modi is the strategist then Amit Shah has emerged as the executor. Together they hunt in pairs and have already proved their formidable influence in the recent Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections.
Yet it is to the credit of Shah –who was handpicked by Modi to be the youngest ever President of the Janata Party at 50 – to quickly establish himself as an alter ego of Modi at the altar of Right-wing politics! Today, he proposes and Prime Minister Modi – the demigod – disposes whereas the BJP reaps the electoral benefits of their association .
Amit Shah: Rising in Political Stature
Shah inarguably is the man of the moment after scripting a fairytale victory for his party in Haryana and Maharashtra. These were the first assembly elections within six months of the BJP forming its government in New Delhi and the onus was on him to prove that the setbacks to the party in intervening by-elections in 13 states were fluke and that the popularity of Modi was still intact. Any setback now would have jolted the Prime Minister and his reforms agenda and also weakened his as well as Shah’s position within the BJP organisation as well. To his credit, Shah took bold initiatives to go all alone in the polls and allow Modi to be the star campaigner in the two states . That he passed the litmus test with flying colours has now propelled him to be the, as a prominent newspaper reported, “second most influential politician in the country”.
Obviously, it is as much Shah’s victory as it is of Modi’s in Haryana where the BJP won absolute majority for the first ever time, and Maharashtra, where it emerged for the first time as the single largest party in the state assembly. It is difficult though for Shah to step out of the shadows of his mentor, Modi.
Amit Shah: A Staunch Modi Loyalist
Can Shah be called ‘His master’s voice’?
Shah has. indeed. been one of the staunch Modi loyalists for almost two decades who always stood for his mentor and was never even afraid of landing into controversies if that was required to stand beside Modi. As the BJP president, he now faithfully carries on Modi’s agenda of a ‘Congress-free India” but this does require a temperament and methodology. He describes the people’s verdict in favour of the BJP in Maharashtra and Haryana as “two more steps towards Congress-free India”. He also shies away from taking credit for the BJP’s splendid performance and attributes it to “a kind of stamp of approval by the people on the Modi government’s work, its policies and initiatives in the last four months.”
Ostensibly, Shah does require Modi’s backing in all contentious decisions that he takes on the party’s behalf – whether to snap the 25-year-old ties with the Shiv Sena or dissociate the party from Haryana Janhit Congress in Haryana, or to work on post-poll arithmetic for government formation in Maharashtra where it still falls short of majority. Yet, he also has a proven organisational capacity that even Modi falls back on. Consider the way he took a dig at the Sena after the state elections in Maharashtra — “…We won more seats than we were being offered.”
Shah has never lost an election in his political career and that makes him stand out in the crowd.. He is Modi’s man at the helm. And to win the confidence of the Prime Minister does require some special qualities. After all, Modi does have a knack of picking horses for the courses!
Amit Shah and Narendra Modi : Similarities Galore
There are many similarities between Shah and Modi. Both are Gujaratis; both have their roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; both started their political careers from Ahmedabad; both were together in the BJP government of Gujarat – Modi as the Chief Minister and Shah as a minister in his cabinet; both moved over to the Central politics together ahead of the last general elections as Modi got him first as in charge of the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh where he delivered spectacularly as the BJP and its ally won 73 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats, and thereafter as the party President.
Yet, the most striking similarity between the two is their litigious past wherein both faced charges of fanning riots. While Modi for more than a decade remained embroiled in court cases over the 2002 post-Godhra communal violence in Gujarat when he was the CM, Shah, who was then the junior minister for home in Modi’s ministry in Gujarat, faced the ignominy of being incarcerated in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case! He was arrested, had to quit as minister, and was even barred by the court to enter Gujarat then.
Amit Shah : Now on Mission Jharkhand and J&K
Unlike Modi, Shah had to wait longer for his chance to prove his worth in the BJP’s central politics. But once he has got his opportunity courtesy Modi, what a turnaround it has been for him from a jailed politician to being the president of the country’s ruling party! Today he enjoys an aura of invincibility and is hailed for his organisational skills.
As the Modi-Shah duo now set their eyes on the ensuing state elections in Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir, they have already transformed the party from a fragmented entity of warring cadres to a monolithic organisation where Shah does have an important role to play for his mentor. After all, hasn’t he proved himself to be the most ardent pupil of Modi?
But more than that, performance does matter after all…more so when it wins you elections!
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