After 9 years, Modi-Shah together in running govt

After a gap of nearly nine years, BJP president Amit Shah will become a minister and will be with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in running a government.

In 2010, Shah was a Cabinet minister in the then chief minister Modi's government in Gujarat when the former was arrested by the CBI in Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. That was the last time when both of them worked together in a government.

With Amit Shah taking oath as a Cabinet minister in the second term of Modi-led Union government, he is set to get an important portfolio and will have to resign from the party president post.

Party sources said that he has already resigned from his Rajya Sabha membership.

54-year-old Shah was the most powerful minister in Modi's 13 years rules in Gujarat. He is still famous in the state as a minister who held over a dozen portfolio including home and law.

On July 25, 2010, Shah was arrested by the CBI in encounter cases of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, Kauserbi and Tulsiram Prajapati, which led to his resignation.

After spending three months in Sabarmati Central Jail, Shah was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court. The CBI challenged this in the Supreme Court which while upholding the grant of bail, stopped Shah from entering Gujarat.

For nearly two years, Shah had to remain in Delhi. Back then, this had severely dented his political career.

Shah was allowed to come back in 2012 during the state Assembly polls. It was also the time when the projection of Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha polls was gaining ground.

Modi had to not only win the polls for the record third time but also increase the party's seat tally.

Modi won but could get only 115 seats but it didn't change his popularity in the country.

"After winning Assembly polls, Amitbhai started making a strategy for the biggest campaign ever we took, in a bid to win 2014 Lok Sabha polls. That's why Amitbhai didn't participate in running the government. His whole focus was to win the polls. He worked really hard," a BJP leader said.

Even this election, he travelled more than 1.58 lakh km in the country to devise a strategy and choose candidates.

In December 2014, a special CBI court in Mumbai discharged Shah in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

The court held Shah's "working style as home minister plausible" since he used to be in touch with police officers directly. CBI had alleged Shah for conspiring the alleged encounter with other Gujarat police officers and had produced Call Detail Records to prove how frequently Shah used to call them.