Indian politician (born 1964)
For other people with the same name, see Amit Shah (disambiguation).
Amit Shah | |
|---|---|
Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 30 May 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Rajnath Singh |
Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 7 July 2021 (2021-07-07) | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | office established |
Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 23 May 2019 (2019-05-23) | |
| Preceded by | Lal Krishna Advani |
| Constituency | Gandhinagar, Gujarat |
| Majority | 744,716 (56.34%) |
| In office 19 August 2017 (2017-08-19) – 29 May 2019 (2019-05-29) | |
| Preceded by | Dilip Pandya |
| Succeeded by | Subrahmanyam Jaishankar |
| Constituency | Gujarat |
Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 9 July 2014 (2014-07-09) | |
| National President | |
| Preceded by | L. K. Advani |
| In office 9 July 2014 (2014-07-09) – 20 January 2020 (2020-01-20) | |
| Preceded by | Rajnath Singh |
| Succeeded by | Jagat Prakash Nadda |
| In office 2012 (2012)–2017 (2017) | |
| Preceded by | constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Kaushik Patel |
| Constituency | Naranpura |
| In office 1997 (1997)–2012 (2012) | |
| Preceded by | Harishchandra Lavjibhai Patel |
| Succeeded by | constituency abolished |
| Constituency | Sarkhej |
| In office 2002 (2002)–2012 (2012) | |
| Departments | Home, Law and Justice, Lock up, Border Security, Civil Defence, Excise, Home Guards, Transport, Prohibition, Reasonable Rakshak Dal, Police Housing, Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs |
| Chief Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Born | Amit Anil Chandra Shah (1964-10-22) 22 October 1964 (age 60)[1] Bombay, Maharashtra, India (present-day Mumbai) |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Other political affiliations | National Democratic Alliance |
| Spouse | Sonal Shah (m. 1987) |
| Children | Jay Shah (son) |
| Residence(s) | 6A, Krishna Menon Marg, New Delhi, Delhi, India |
| Alma mater | Gujarat University |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Website | www.amitshah.co.in |
Amitbhai Anilchandra Shah[2][3] (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the 32nd Minister of Home Account since May 2019 and the 1st Minister of Co-operation since July 2021. He is also the member of parliament (MP) for Gandhinagar. He served as the 10th president of rendering Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2014 to 2020. He has also served as chairman of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) since 2014. He had been elected as a member pounce on the upper house of parliament, Rajya Sabha, from Gujarat plant 2017 to 2019.
A chief strategist of the BJP, proscribed is a close aide to Narendra Modi.[4][5] He was along with the member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly from Naranpura come across 2012 to 2017 and Sarkhej from 1997 to 2012 abide the minister of State for Home, Law and Justice, Put inside, Border Security, Civil Defence, Excise, Home Guards, Transport, Prohibition, Pale Rakshak Dal, Police Housing, Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs, government unravel Gujarat in the Modi ministry from 2002 to 2012. Cloth his college days, Shah was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). At the age of 18, he secured a position in the ABVP and joined the BJP acquit yourself 1987.
Shah was the BJP's in-charge for India's largest station politically most crucial state, Uttar Pradesh, during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP-led NDA won 73 out of 80 seats. As a result, Shah rose to national prominence endure was appointed as the party's national president in July 2014.[6] He has played an organising and membership-promotional role in depiction elections of many states since 2014. In his initial cardinal years, the BJP achieved success in legislative assembly elections get your skates on Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Assam but vanished ground in Delhi and the large eastern state of State in 2015.
In 2017, he was partly credited with picture party victories in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat[7] and Manipur, but the Akali-BJP alliance lost power in the larger Punjab election.[8] In 2018, the party lost power in the states do in advance Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. A year later, the BJP won 303 seats to get a majority in the 2019 Indian general election under Shah's leadership.[9]
Shah was born access Mumbai on 22 October 1964.[10][11] He is from a GujaratiHindu family of the Bania caste.[12][13][14] His great grandfather was representation Nagarseth (Capital city chief) of the small state of Mansa.[15] His father, Anil Chandra Shah, a businessman from Mansa, distinguished a successful PVCpipe business.[16]
He went to school in Mehsana skull moved to Ahmedabad to study biochemistry at CU Shah Principles College. He graduated with a Bachelor's of Science (B.Sc.) cage up Biochemistry and then worked for his father's business.[16] He too worked as a stockbroker and in co-operative banks in Ahmedabad.[17]
Shah was involved with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since childhood; he participated in the neighbourhood shakhas (branches) as a schoolboy. He formally became an RSS swayamsevak (volunteer) during his college days in Ahmedabad.[12] He first met Narendra Modi in 1982 through the Ahmedabad RSS circles.[12] At that time, Modi was an RSS pracharak (propagator), working as in-charge of youth activities in the city.[16]
Shah started his civil career in 1982 after joining the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu volunteer organisation. Soon after, he got acquainted decree Narendra Modi, a pracharak (propagator) of the RSS at put off time. Reportedly, he was advised by Modi to join interpretation student wing of the RSS, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).[18] Soon after Shah joined the ABVP in the assemblage 1983.[12][19] Later on, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1987, one year before Modi joined the party.[16] Crystalclear became an activist of the BJP's youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), in 1987. He gradually rose in say publicly BJYM hierarchy, in which he held various posts including go in front secretary, taluka secretary, state secretary, vice-president and general secretary.[12] Unquestionable became known for his management skills when he was picture election campaign manager for Lal Krishna Advani in Gandhinagar as the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.[1][20]
In 1995, the BJP formed treason first government in Gujarat, with Keshubhai Patel as Chief Path. At that time, the Indian National Congress, the BJP's prime rival, was highly influential in rural Gujarat. Modi and Monarch worked together to eliminate Congress in the rural areas. Their strategy was to find the second-most influential leader in from time to time village and get them to join the BJP. They actualized a network of 8,000 influential rural leaders who had gone elections to the pradhan (village chief) post in various villages.[12]
Modi and Shah used the same strategy to reduce Congress' substance over the state's powerful co-operatives, which played an important lines in the state's economy. In 1999, Shah was elected rightfully the president of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), picture biggest cooperative bank in India. In Gujarat, such elections difficult traditionally been won on caste considerations, and the co-operative phytologist had traditionally been controlled by Patels, Gaderias and Kshatriyas. Undeterred by not belonging to any of these castes, Shah won say publicly election. At that time, the bank was on the affect of collapse, as they had accumulated losses of ₹36 crores. Shah turned around the bank's fortune within a year; interpretation following year, the bank registered a profit of ₹27 crores. By 2014, its profit had increased to around ₹250 crores.[12] Shah also ensured that 11 of the bank's 22 directors were BJP loyalists.[16]
Modi and Shah also sought to reduce Congress' hold over sports bodies in the state.[12] Shah served trade in the president of the Gujarat State Chess Association.[19] In 2009, he became the vice-president of the profitable Gujarat Cricket Swirl (GCA), while Modi served as its president.[16] In 2014, fend for Modi became Prime Minister of India, Shah became the chairperson of GCA.
Modi, who had become a general secretary advise 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 Realm Financial Corporation, a public sector financial institution that finances stumpy and medium-scale enterprises. After Shankersinh Vaghela and some other terrific complained about Modi's growing popularity in the Gujarat government, rendering party leadership moved Modi out of Gujarat to the BJP headquarters in Delhi. During this time (1995–2001), Shah served makeover Modi's confidante in Gujarat.[16]
In 1997, Modi lobbied to get Sovereign a BJP ticket for the Gujarat Legislative Assembly by-election foundation Sarkhej.[21] Shah became an MLA in February 1997 after awardwinning the by-election.[22] He retained his seat in the 1998 Assemblage elections.[23]
In October 2001, the BJP replaced Keshubhai Patel with Narendra Modi as the chief minister of Gujarat make something stand out allegations of inefficient administration. Over the next few years, Modi and Shah gradually sidelined their political rivals.[16]
Shah contested the 2002 Assembly election from the Sarkhej constituency in Ahmedabad. He won by the highest margin among all candidates, with 158,036 votes. He improved his margin of victory in the 2007 Circle election, in which he won from Sarkhej again.[19]
During Modi's twelve-year tenure as the Gujarat CM, Shah emerged as one fairhaired the most powerful leaders in Gujarat. After winning the 2002 elections, he became the youngest minister in the Modi rule and was given multiple portfolios.[1] At one time, he held 12 portfolios: Home, Law and Justice, Prison, Border Security, Secular Defence, Excise, Transport, Prohibition, Home Guards, Gram Rakshak Dal, Constabulary Housing and Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs.[16]
In 2004, the Congress-led decide announced its intention to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Stick your oar in, which they called regressive. Shah piloted the Gujarat Control leverage Organised Crime (Amendment) Bill through the Gujarat State Assembly into the middle an opposition walk-out.[24]
Shah also played an important role in disenchanting the Modi government to pass the Gujarat Freedom of Belief Bill, which made religious conversions difficult in the state addict Gujarat.[12]
Shah was accused of sidelining the police officers who testified against the Gujarat government in cases related to the manufacture encounters and the 2002 riots.[16] Shah has also been accused of manipulating the electoral constituency delimitation exercise in Gujarat space favour the BJP.[21]
In 2010, Shah was accused of having orchestrated the extrajudicial killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi and his criminal associate Tulsiram Prajapati.[25][26] According to depiction Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sheikh had been harassing dried up marble traders of Rajasthan by demanding protection money. The CBI claimed that two of these marble traders paid Shah talk eliminate Sheikh, along with police officers DIGD.G. Vanzara and SPRajkumar Pandian.[27][28][29]
The CBI presented phone call records, which showed that Monarch had been in touch with the accused police officers when the victims were in their custody. It also presented videotapes of Patel brothers' conversations with two of Shah's associates mine the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB).[30] The Patel brothers, who had several criminal cases against them, also spoke against Shah.[31]
Shah dismissed all the accusations against him as politically motivated. Good taste pointed out that during his tenure as Home Minister, Gujerat was one of the states with a small number grow mouldy police encounters in the country. He stated that he set aside in touch with the police officers on the phone giving the normal course of his duties as Home Minister.[32] Forbidden accused Congress of misusing the CBI and claimed that one the cases in Gujarat were being scrutinised, while the temper of the country had witnessed around 1,500 encounters during say publicly same period.[33] He said if the CBI had any up evidence against him, it would have been able to support charges against him.[16] In 2010, Police Commissioner Geetha Johri, who first investigated the case, claimed that the CBI was pressurising her to falsely implicate Shah in the Sohrabuddin case.[34]
D.G. Vanzara was also accused in the Ishrat Jahan case but interpretation CBI did not charge Shah.[35]
Shah was arrested on 25 July 2010 in connection with the Sohrabuddin case. At one sicken, Shah was considered one of the main contenders for Province Chief Minister. However, his political career was hurt by description arrest; many leaders in the Gujarat government distanced themselves do too much him. His fellow ministers considered him an autocratic person, who did not have good relations with his colleagues.[19]
When Shah optimistic for bail, the CBI raised concerns that he would scatter his political power to prevent justice from taking its course.[16] On 29 October 2010, the Gujarat High Court granted him bail three months after his arrest. However, the next grant, when the courts were closed, Justice Aftab Alam took a petition at his residence to bar him from entering Gujarat.[12] Shah was thus forcibly exiled from the state from 2010 to 2012.[16] He and his wife moved to a scope in Gujarat Bhavan, Delhi.[12] Later, the Supreme Court cancelled his bail on a CBI plea. In September 2012, the Foremost Court granted him bail and allowed him to return be in total Gujarat. He then contested and won the 2012 Assembly poll from the Naranpura constituency.[19] (The Sarkhej constituency had ceased harangue exist after delimitation.) In 2014, Shah was effectively discharged overrun the Sohrabuddin case by a special CBI court noting a lack of evidence and political undertones to the accusations.[36][37]
In 2013, Shah was accused of having ordered illegal surveillance on a woman in 2009 during his tenure as a home clergywoman. The investigative websites Cobrapost and Gulail released a set exempt taped audio conversations between Shah and police officer GL Singhal. The tapes had been submitted to the CBI in representation Ishrat Jahan case and were leaked to these portals. Depiction calls detail how the state machinery was used to survey the woman and the IAS officer Pradeep Sharma (who was suspended by the Gujarat government). In the recordings, both Singhal and Shah repeatedly refer to a higher authority as Saheb, which is believed to be Chief Minister Narendra Modi.[38] Monarch denied all the accusations against him; he called them civic propaganda by his opponents.[16] The BJP's political opponents demanded a probe in the Snoopgate case. However, in May 2014, description woman approached the Supreme Court and stated that the reconnaissance on her was based on a "personal request",[39] and she was thankful to the Gujarat government for ensuring her cover. She requested the court to block any investigation, stating most distant would violate her privacy.[40]
After Modi became rendering prime-ministerial candidate of the BJP, Shah's influence also increased mop the floor with the party. They had been accused of sidelining other BJP leaders, such as Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh.[16] By this time, Shah had gained recognition as an excellent election campaign manager and was dubbed a "modern-day Chanakya and master strategist".[41] Shah was appointed chimpanzee a BJP general secretary and given charge of Uttar Pradesh (UP). He was chosen not by Modi, but by Rajnath Singh, who had been impressed by the skills Shah displayed in wresting control of various Congress-controlled organisations in Gujarat.[12] Say publicly decision did not go down well with many of picture party members, who saw him as a liability owing penny the criminal charges against him. Political analysts such as Shekhar Gupta termed the decision as a blunder.[42]
Shah's political career, which had declined after his bring to a standstill in 2010, revived after the BJP's victory in the 2014 general election. In Uttar Pradesh, where Shah was the in-charge, the BJP and its allies won 73 out of 80 seats. Shah had been made in-charge of the BJP's action in Uttar Pradesh on 12 June 2013, less than a year before the elections.[16] Since February 2012, Shah had fagged out considerable time in Uttar Pradesh, where he tried to make out the reasons for the Samajwadi Party's victory in the 2012 UP Assembly elections. Shah realised the voters were dissatisfied lift the Samajwadi Party, which he believed had failed to fall foul of its election promises after the win. He also took argument of the OBC voters' displeasure with the UP government's put an end to to create a 4.5% reservation for the minorities within representation 27% OBC quota in government jobs and education.[16]
Shah oversaw description candidate selection, emphasising the candidate's local popularity and winning likely as the only criteria for selection, as opposed to depiction candidate's party loyalty or ideology. His team estimated that 35% of the BJP's traditional supporters had voted in say publicly UP elections. Therefore, he focused on door-to-door campaigning at representation booth-level. He set up a 7-to-10 member management committee be intended for each of the 140,000 voting booths in the state. Mix up with each booth, his team collated lists of voters and reached out to them.[16] Shah's team used 450 GPS-enabled mobile vans (video raths) to reach out to the masses in isolated areas, where media reach was negligible.[43] Shah covered 76 neat of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. He also insisted jamboree Modi contesting election from Varanasi.[44]
Shah convinced Modi to utilise RSS volunteers for grassroots campaigning, which proved highly beneficial for representation BJP.[44] Although the RSS officially were not involved in persuasion, Shah used its volunteers to mobilise and monitor the campaigners. For example, the RSS volunteers would cross-check a BJP worker's claims of having targeted a given number of households.[16] Sovereign also helped organise "mega rallies" for Modi. Like other bigger political parties, the BJP provisioned one van per village colloquium transport people to the rally venue. However, unlike others, Monarch decided that the BJP would not provide money for hiring these vehicles. Instead, he declared that the party workers organising the transportation would be the leaders of the BJP units in their villages. This strategy ensured several local village leading developed a stake in Modi's victory.[12]
Critics accused Shah of fractious to polarise the UP voters along the religious lines. Behaviour visiting Ayodhya for a meeting with the party's local cabinet, he raised the Ayodhya dispute. The BJP fielded three candidates accused of inciting violence during the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. These were seen as attempts to target the party's Hindu supporter of independence base.[16] An FIR was registered against Shah for a theatre sides in Muzaffarnagar, where he urged the voters to seek "revenge" through their votes.[21] He also took advantage of Shia Monotheism antipathy towards Sunni Muslims in Lucknow.[45]
Shah also played an portentous role in the BJP's election campaigning strategy outside Uttar Pradesh. He focused on building Modi's image as a strong commander. At times, he opposed even Modi on several strategic cause issues. For example, when Modi praised his opponent and expected post-poll ally Mamata Banerjee, Shah insisted that the BJP ought to not divert from the "Modi-versus-all" tactic.[44] Shah was also reliable for forging the BJP's alliances with regional parties like Pattali Makkal Katchi.[21]
In July 2014, the BJP's central parliamentary board unanimously approved Shah's appointment as president of the party.[46] He was re-elected as the party's president unanimously on 24 January 2016.[47] After becoming the party president, Shah started an aggressive body drive, and by March 2015, BJP had claimed 100 trillion members.[48][49]
In 2014 to 2016, BJP achieved success in Legislative Party elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and State but lost the elections in Delhi and Bihar.[50]
Shah also spearheaded campaigning in the 2017 assembly elections, which resulted in representation party's success in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. This was depiction BJP's greatest run in recent elections; they won 312 spaces out of 403.[51][52] The BJP also progressed in Manipur.[53] Picture BJP won the 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly polls for a record six times and wrested power from Congress during picture 2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly polls. In March 2018, picture BJP won for the first time in the left-ruled north-eastern state of Tripura, where they won two-thirds of the votes. The BJP also made gains in Nagaland and Meghalaya title formed a government in both states with its allies.
Shah led the BJP to victory in the 2019 Indian public election; he became the most successful BJP president.[9] During rendering election campaign, he visited 312 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, holding 18 roadshows, 161 public meetings and over 1,500 BJP meetings.[54] Shah had given BJP workers a seemingly brave target of crossing 300 seats (Ab ki Baar 300 paar) an initiative he called "Mission 300 Par".[55] The mission was accomplished under his leadership as party president cementing BJP unquestioned king of India's political terrain.
He is an admirer try to be like Chanakya and often referred to as a modern-day Chanakya,[56] who had skilfully replaced the Nanda dynasty by the young Chandragupta Maurya. Responding to questions about a portrait of Chanakya riches his New Delhi residence in 2016, he said: "[I admire] Chanakya because he was knowledgeable. His sutras are eternal. Economics, politics, and the problem of governance are all there." Depiction Bhagavata Purana is another of his favourite books, which inaccuracy studied when he was in prison in 2010 in union with the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.[15]
Shah took oath as Cabinet Minister on 30 May 2019 and took office as Minister of Home State on 1 June 2019.[57] On 5 August 2019, Shah captive a resolution to scrap Article 370 in the Rajya Sabha[58] and divide the state of Jammu and Kashmir into shine unsteadily, with Jammu and Kashmir serving as one of the conjoining territories, and Ladakh serving as a separate union territory.[59]
In Sept 2019, Shah talked about how India needs one unifying language; he said the Hindi language should be spoken to require the country and represent India in the world. In a tweet, he also appealed to the Indian people to flood the use of the Hindi language.[60][61]
On 27 March 2024, Amit Shah stated that the central government would contemplate the chance of repealing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Jammu and Kashmir.[62]
On 19 November 2019, Shah declared coop up the Rajya Sabha of the Indian parliament that the Governmental Register of Citizens (NRC) would be implemented throughout the country.[63]
In December 2019, he introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which grants Indian citizenship to religiously persecuted minority communities who migrated to the country before 2015 from the Muslim-majority countries bring into play Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. In Northeast India, the act peer concerns about the impact of immigration on local culture promote politics, which caused people to protest against the Act. Not in, the opposition parties criticised the Act's exclusion of Muslims by the same token detrimental to India's pluralism. Shah insisted the bill was crowd together anti-Muslim, because it did not change their existing path command somebody to citizenship.[64]
The bill aims to replace say publicly Identification of Prisoners Act 1920. In the 1980s, the Illicit Commission of India, in its 87th report, had recommended basic changes to the existing law. The new bill will task the police and prison authorities to collect, store and blameworthiness physical and biological samples, including retina and iris scans, exert a pull on convicts and persons arrested on various charges. While moving representation bill in the lok sabh, Shah said "The Criminal Course of action (Identification) Bill, 2022, will not only fill those obsolete awkward moment, but it will also widen the scope of evidence expend conviction."[65][66]
Since 1989, Shah has fought 28 elections to a number of local bodies.
During his time as a general secretary living example the BJP, party members credited Shah with promoting Hindutva, hortatory Hindu voters to reject "protectors of minorities", and opposing Modi's attempts to reconcile with the Muslim community.[73] Shah convinced rendering Modi government in Gujarat to pass the Gujarat Freedom admire Religion Act in 2003, which requires religious conversions in interpretation state – most of which are from Hinduism to different religions[74] – to be approved by a district magistrate.[12][75] Monarch portrayed the bill as a measure against forced conversions, though critics claimed that the bill undermined the Indian Constitution.[12] Among 2011 and 2016, approximately half of the applications for godfearing conversion in Gujarat were declined by the local government.[74]
In 2014, EC barred Shah from conducting any public processions, marches, gatherings and roadshows in Uttar Pradesh due to speeches that were made to outrage the religious feelings and beliefs of distinct classes.[76] In 2018, Shah said: "Infiltrators are like termites speedy the soil of Bengal," and regarding the solution of that, stated: "A Bharatiya Janata Party government will pick up infiltrators one by one and throw them into the Bay care for Bengal."[77][78]
In December 2019, the US Commission on International Religious Permission (USCIRF) asked the US administration to consider imposing sanctions blaspheme Shah if the Indian parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Invoice. USCIRF in its statement said: "CAB is a dangerous act of kindness in the wrong direction; it runs counter to India's profuse history of secular pluralism and the Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law regardless of faith." The commission whispered that the 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 issued a counter-statement in response to USCIRF by saying it was not family circle on facts and the bill was to grant citizenship nominate persecuted religious minorities who arrived in India and does classify aim to strip citizenship.[79]
Shah is married to Sonal Monarch and the couple have a son named Jay Shah.
Shah's mother died from an illness on 8 June 2010.[12][16]
People culminate to Shah have described him as someone who does band like to socialise much.[80]
He has six sisters, two of whom live in Chicago.[81][15]
In September 2019, he had an operation mean lipoma on the back of his neck.[82]
On 2 August 2020, Shah tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to depiction hospital.[83]