Amit Shah

Shah led BJP to victory in the 2019 Indian general election, becoming the most successful BJP President ever, in the process. During the election campaign, he visited 312 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, holding 18 road shows, 161 public meetings, and over 1,500 BJP meetings.

Shah took oath as Cabinet Minister on 30 May 2019. He took office as Minister of Home Affairs on 1 June 2019. On 5 August 2019, Shah moved resolution to scrap Article 370 in the Rajya Sabha., and also reorganize the state with Jammu and Kashmir serving as one of the union territory and Ladakh region separated out as a separate union territory.

In September 2019, Shah talked about India needs one unifying language, saying that the Hindi language to unite the country and said that it is necessary to have one language which could represent India in the world. In a tweet, he also appealed the Indians to increase the usage of Hindi language.

On 19 November 2019, Shah declared in the Rajya Sabha of the Indian parliament that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will be implemented throughout the country.

In December 2019, he introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 bill, which grants Indian citizenship to religiously persecuted minority communities who migrated to the country before 2015 from the Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. In North-East India, people concerned about the impact of immigration on local culture and politics protested against the Act. Elsewhere, the opposition parties criticized the Act's exclusion of Muslims as detrimental to India's pluralism. Shah, however, insisted that that the bill was not anti-Muslim because it did not change the existing path to citizenship available for them.

In December 2019, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) asked the US administration to consider imposing sanctions against Home Minister Amit Shah if the Indian parliament passed The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019. USCIRF in its statement said, "CAB is a dangerous turn in the wrong direction; it runs counter to India's rich history of secular pluralism and the Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law regardless of faith". The commission chaired by Republican Tony Perkins said CAB "enshrines a pathway to citizenship for immigrants that specifically excludes Muslims, setting a legal criterion for citizenship based on religion". The external affairs ministry was quick in issuing a counter-statement in response to USCIRF by saying that it was not based on facts and the bill was to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities who arrived in India and does not aim to strip citizenship

In 2018, Shah said millions of "illegal infiltrators" have entered the country like "termites" and should be "uprooted": "Should they be thrown out or not? Millions of infiltrators have entered our country and are eating the country like termites. Should we not uproot them?"

He was, in 2017, partly credited with the party victories in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Manipur, but the Akali-BJP alliance lost power in considerably larger Punjab. In 2018, the party lost power in the states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The next year, BJP won 303 seats to get majority in the 2019 Indian general election under Shah's leadership.

Shah also spearheaded campaigning in the 2017 assembly elections, which gave BJP resounding success in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, meaning the party won its greatest run in percentage terms in recent state assembly elections: 312 seats out of 403. BJP made some headway into Manipur. Under his stewardship, the BJP has also won 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly polls for a record six times and wrested power from the INC during the 2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly polls. In March 2018, BJP won first time in the left-ruled northeastern state of Tripura with a two-thirds majority. BJP also made gains in Nagaland and Meghalaya and formed government in both states with its allies.

In July 2014, BJP's Central Parliamentary Board unanimously approved Shah's appointment as president of the party. He was reelected BJP President unanimously on 24 January 2016.

He is often referred to as a modern-day Chanakya, who had skillfully replaced the Nanda dynasty by the young Chandragupta Maurya. He himself is an admirer of Chanakya. Responding to the questions from a reporter about a portrait of Chanakya at his New Delhi residence in 2016, he said: "[I admire] Chanakya because he was knowledgeable. His sutras are eternal. Economics, politics, the problem of governance are all there.” The Bhagavata Purana is another of his favourite books, which he studied when he was in prison.

After becoming party president, Shah started an aggressive membership drive and by March 2015 BJP claimed 100 million members.

Shah was the BJP's in-charge for India's largest and politically most crucial state, Uttar Pradesh, during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP and its allies swept the state, registering their best performance, by winning 73 out of 80 seats. As a result, Shah rose to national prominence and was appointed as the party's national president in July 2014.

He has played an organising and membership-promotional role in elections of many states since 2014. In his initial two years, the BJP achieved success in Legislative Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand in 2014 and in Assam but lost ground in Delhi and the large eastern state of Bihar in 2015.

Under his leadership during 2014–16, BJP achieved success in Legislative Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and Assam, but lost the elections in Delhi and Bihar.

Shah's political career, which had declined after his arrest in 2010, revived after BJP's victory in the 2014 general election. In UP, where Shah was the in-charge, BJP and its allies won 73 out of 80 seats. Shah had been made in charge of BJP's UP campaigning on 12 June 2013, less than a year before the elections. Since February 2012, Shah had spent considerable time in UP, trying to understand the reasons for the Samajwadi Party's winning performance in the 2012 UP Assembly elections. Shah realised that the voters were dissatisfied with the Samajwadi Party, which he believed had failed to keep its election promises after the win. He also took advantage of the OBC voters' displeasure with the UP government's decision to create 4.5% reservation for the minorities within the 27% OBC quota in government jobs and education.

Critics accused Shah of trying to polarize the UP voters along the religious lines. While visiting Ayodhya for a meeting with the party's local committee, he raised the Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue (see Ayodhya dispute). BJP fielded three candidates accused of inciting violence during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. These were seen as attempts to target the party's Hindu nationalist base. An FIR was registered against Shah for a speech in Muzaffarnagar, where he urged the voters to seek "revenge" through their votes. He also took advantage of Shia Muslim antipathy towards Sunni Muslims in Lucknow.

In 2013, Shah was accused of having ordered illegal surveillance on a woman in 2009, during his tenure as a home minister. The investigative websites Cobrapost and Gulail released a set of taped audio conversations between Shah and police officer GL Singhal. The tapes had been submitted to the CBI in the Ishrat Jahan case, and were leaked to these portals. The calls detail how the state machinery was used to surveil the woman and the IAS officer Pradeep Sharma (who was suspended by the Gujarat Government). Both Singhal and Shah repeatedly refer to a higher authority as Saheb, believed to be the Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Shah denied all the accusations against him, calling them political propaganda by his opponents. BJP's political opponents demanded a probe in this Snoopgate case. However, in May 2014, the woman approached the Supreme Court and stated that the surveillance on her was based on a "personal request", and she was thankful to the Gujarat government for ensuring her safety. She requested the court to block any investigation, stating that it would violate her privacy.

In 2010, Shah was accused of having orchestrated the extrajudicial killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi and his criminal associate Tulsiram Prajapati. According to the CBI, Sohrabuddin had been harassing some marble traders of Rajasthan, by demanding hefty protection money. CBI claimed that two of these marble traders paid Shah to eliminate Sohrabuddin, along with the police officers DIG DG Vanzara and SP Rajkumar Pandian.

Shah was arrested on 25 July 2010 in connection with the Sohrabuddin case. At one time, Shah was considered as one of the main contenders for the Gujarat Chief Minister's post. However, his political career was hurt by the arrest. Many leaders in the Gujarat government distanced themselves from him. His fellow ministers considered him as an autocratic person, who did not have good relations with his colleagues.

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 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 2012 Assembly election from Naranpura constituency (the Sarkhej constituency had ceased to exist after delimitation).

Shah is married to Sonal Shah and the couple have a son named Jay. Shah was very close to his mother, who died from an illness on 8 June 2010. People close to Shah have described him as someone who does not like to socialize much. He has six sisters, two of whom live abroad in Chicago. In September 2019, he was operated for lipoma at the backside of neck.

Modi and Shah also sought to reduce the Congress hold over sports bodies in the state. Shah served as the president of Gujarat State Chess Association. In 2009, he became the vice-president of the cash-rich Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA), when Narendra Modi served as its president. In 2014, after Modi became Prime Minister of India, Shah became the president of GCA.

In 2004, the Congress-led Central Government announced its intention to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, calling it regressive. Shah piloted the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (Amendment) Bill through Gujarat state assembly amid an opposition walk-out.

Shah contested the 2002 Assembly election from the Sarkhej constituency in Ahmedabad. He won by the highest margin among all candidates: 158,036 votes. In the 2007 Assembly election, he won from Sarkhej again, improving his margin of victory.

During Narendra Modi's twelve-year tenure as the Gujarat CM, 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. At one time, he held 12 portfolios: Home, Law and Justice, Prison, Border Security, Civil Defence, Excise, Transport, Prohibition, Home Guards, Gram Rakshak Dal, Police Housing, and Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs.

Shah was accused of sidelining the police officers who testified against the Gujarat government in cases related to the fake encounters and the 2002 riots. Shah has also been accused of manipulating the electoral constituency delimitation exercise in Gujarat to favour BJP.

In October 2001, BJP replaced Keshubhai Patel with Narendra Modi as the chief minister of Gujarat, following allegations of inefficient administration. Over the next few years, Modi and Shah gradually sidelined their political rivals.

Modi and Shah used the same strategy to reduce Congress' influence over the state's powerful co-operatives, which play an important role in the state's economy. In 1999, Shah was elected as the president of Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), the biggest cooperative bank in India. In Gujarat, such elections had traditionally been won on the caste considerations, and the co-operative banks had traditionally been controlled by Patels, Gaderias and Kshatriyas. Despite not belonging to any of these castes, Shah won the election. At that time, the bank was on the verge of collapsing, having accumulated losses of ₹ 36 crore. Shah turned around the bank's fortune within a year's time: the next year, the bank registered a profit of ₹ 27 crore. By 2014, the bank's profit had increased to around ₹ 250 crore. Shah also ensured that 11 of the Bank's 22 directors were BJP loyalists.

In 1997, Modi lobbied to get Shah a BJP ticket for the Gujarat Legislative Assembly by-election in Sarkhej. Shah became an MLA in February 1997 after winning the by-election. He retained his seat in the 1998 Assembly elections.

In 1995, BJP formed its first government in Gujarat, with Keshubhai Patel as the Chief Minister. At that time, BJP's main rival Indian National Congress was highly influential in rural Gujarat. Modi and Shah worked together to decimate Congress in the rural areas. Their strategy was to find the second most influential leader in every village, and get him or her to join BJP. They created a network of 8,000 influential rural leaders who had lost elections to the pradhan (village chief) post in various villages.

Modi, who had become a general secretary in the party's state unit by the early 1990s, used his influence to get bigger roles for Shah. He convinced Patel to appoint Shah as the chairman of the Gujarat State Financial Corporation, a public sector financial institution which finances small and medium-scale enterprises. After Shankersinh Vaghela and some other leaders complained about Modi's growing clout in the Gujarat government, the party leadership moved Modi out of Gujarat, to the BJP headquarters in Delhi. During this time (1995-2001), Shah served as Modi's informer in Gujarat.

Since 1989, Shah has fought 28 elections to various local bodies. As of 2019, he has never lost an election.

During his college days Shah was a member of ABVP, the student wing of the RSS. At the age of 18, he secured a position in the ABVP, and joined the BJP in 1987. Shah was first elected in Gujarat as the MLA for a seat partly covering Ahmedabad, Sarkhej in 1997 (a by-election) holding it in 1998, 2002 and 2007 until the seat's dissolution in 2008, then for nearby Naranpura, from 2012-2017. He is a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and holds executive portfolios in the state government during Modi's tenure as the Chief Minister.

Shah started his political career as a leader of the student wing of the RSS, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, in 1983. He joined BJP in 1987, one year before Modi joined the party. He became an activist of BJP's youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in 1987. He then gradually rose in the BJYM hierarchy, holding various posts including that of ward secretary, taluka secretary, state secretary, vice-president, and general secretary. He came into limelight for his excellent management when he was the election campaign manager for Lal Krishna Advani in Gandhinagar during the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.

Shah was involved with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, participating in the neighbourhood shakhas (branches) as a boy. He formally became an RSS swayamsevak (volunteer) during his college days in Ahmedabad. He first met Narendra Modi in 1982 through Ahmedabad RSS circles. At that time, Modi was an RSS pracharak (propagator), working as in-charge of youth activities in city.

Amit Anilchandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician serving as Minister of Home Affairs who served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2014 to 2020. He was elected to the lower House of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, in the 2019 Indian general election from Gandhinagar. Earlier, he was elected as a member of the upper House of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, from Gujarat in 2017. He also became the youngest serving full-time Home Minister at an age of 54. He is the chief strategist of the BJP and a close aide to Narendra Modi.

Shah was born in Mumbai on 22 October 1964. He came from a Gujarati Hindu Vaishnava family who were Baniyas. His great grandfather was the Nagarseth of the small state of Mansa. His father Anil Chandra Shah, a businessman from Mansa, owned a successful PVC pipe business. He did his schooling in Mehsana and moved to Ahmedabad to study biochemistry at CU Shah Science College. He graduated with a BSc degree in biochemistry, and then worked for his father's business. He also worked as a stockbroker and in co-operative banks in Ahmedabad.