Minister Amit Shah is back "home"

After working for the BJP from backstage for nearly nine years, nothing could have been as grandeur as becoming the Union Home Minister for Amit Shah, the closest lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nine years ago, he had been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) when he was home minister in Gujarat government led by Modi as its chief minister.

“This is certainly big for Amitbhai. His life is a story of turnarounds. Many had written off his political career after his arrest in July 2010 in Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. His elevation as a Union Home Minister shows how patiently he worked to stand where he is today. His hard work has finally paid off,” said a senior BJP leader requesting anonymity.

Popular as “Chanakya” for devising the strategy and winning polls after polls for the party, the 54-year-old will be joining Prime Minister Narendra Mod-led union government for the first time as his number-two. Earlier, Shah was the most powerful minister in Modi government when he was the chief minister. Both ran the state government for nearly a decade till Shah's arrest and his externment from Gujarat in the aftermath of Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter probe.

54-year-old Shah is originally from Mansa village in Gandhinagar district. His close associates said that Shah left a successful business of manufacturing CVC pipes to join politics. His association with Modi started sometime in the 1980s during their RSS days and strategizing political campaigns for party stalwarts like L K Advani’s rath yatra from Somnath temple to Ayodhya that changed the fate of BJP in early 1990s.

“I will describe him as a person who is well-informed. He does his homework really well. Unlike public perception, he reads a lot and has good knowledge of Gujarati literature. His favourite author is Gaurishankar Joshi alias Dhumketu. He has changed himself a lot over the last decade from a foodie to frugal eater so that he can travel and work hard for the party,” said a close aide who has worked with Shah for over 15 years.

During Lok Sabha election campaign Shah travelled over 1,58,000 km for the Lok Sabha campaign – equivalent to going round the world four times -- touching 312 Lok Sabha constituencies early on and then 161 after the announcement of the election dates. A source in BJP said that "In many ways, he is a replica of Modi. Both of them have vast network of people who brief them regularly. Shah has his own set of close associates like Modi on the ground who feed them information."

Shah's name had hit controversy again in 2012-2013 during the probe of Ishrat Jahan encounter investigation. His name had also figured in a tapped telephone conversation where a woman architect was being snooped by officers of Gujarat ATS. The matter was closed after the woman's father moved Gujarat high court against any inquiry into the tapes. He was discharged in Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter in December 2014.

Cabinet Ministers

Raj Nath Singh
Amit Shah
Nitin Jairam Gadkari
D. V. Sadananda Gowda
Nirmala Sitharaman
Ram Vilas Paswan
Narendra Singh Tomar
Ravi Shankar Prasad
Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Thaawar Chand Gehlot
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
Arjun Munda
Smriti Zubin Irani
Harsh Vardhan
Prakash Javadekar
Piyush Goyal
Dharmendra Pradhan
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Pralhad Joshi
Mahendra Nath Pandey
Arvind Ganpat Sawant
Giriraj Singh
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

Santosh Kumar Gangwar
Rao Inderjit Singh
Shripad Yesso Naik
Jitendra Singh
Kiren Rijiju
Prahalad Singh Patel
Raj Kumar Singh
Hardeep Singh Puri
Mansukh L Mandaviya

Ministers of State

Faggansingh Kulaste
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
Arjun Ram Meghwal
General (Retd.) V. K. Singh
Krishan Pal
Danve Raosaheb Dadarao
G Kishan Reddy
Parshottam Rupala
Ramdas Athawale
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
Babul Supriyo
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao
Anurag Singh Thakur
Angadi Suresh Channabasappa
Nityanand Rai
Rattan Lal Kataria
V Muraleedharan
Renuka Singh Saruta
Som Parkash
Rameswar Teli
Pratap Chandra Sarangi
Kailash Choudhary
Debasree Chaudhuri