PM Narendra Modi wishes Home Minister Amit Shah on his 55th birthday

Wishing Home Minister Amit Shah on his 55th birthday, PM Narendra Modi on Tuesday, highlighted Shah's various abilities. Calling him hardworking, experienced, skilled party worker and his friend, PM Modi wished Shah- his political ally since 1982. Amit Shah - often credited to be the Chanakya who turned the BJP to an election-winning machine was born in 1964.

PM Modi wishes Amit Shah

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About Amit Shah

Mumbai-born Amit Shah, Amit Anilchandra Shah, was working with his father in their successful PVC pipe business, before joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. After joining the Sangh as a volunteer, Shah first met Narendra Modi in 1982. Modi was an RSS pracharak (propagator) and a youth-wing leader in Ahmedabad.

Since then the BJP's most successful combination Modi-Shah took the world of politics by a storm. Inspite being a stock market investor, Shah found electoral success early, when he was elected from Gujarat's Sarkhej constituency in four consecutive elections 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2007. His electoral success has only grown since then - with him winning 29 elections including various local body polls.

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In Gujarat politics

Apart from heading the Gujarat BJP wing, he also headed Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB) and the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA). When Modi was sworn in as Gujarat's Chief Minister in 2001, Amit Shah too was given various cabinet portfolios. At one time, he held 12 portfolios- home, law and justice, prison, border security, civil defense, excise, transport, prohibition, home guard, gram rakshak dal, police housing, and legislative parliamentary affairs. In 2010, Shah spent time in jail for the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case in which he got conditional bail to stay away from Gujarat.

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Lok Sabha elections 2014 

When Modi was selected as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014, Shah shone as a master strategist and created the Modi wave. This led to the BJP's most successful and decisive mandate - awarding the BJP with a single-handed majority in 2014. After Modi was sworn in as PM, Amit Shah too was appointed as the party's national president in July 2014. Soon after winning the mandate, Shah also led the party's successful campaign in several poll-bound states winning the crucial states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, etc. 

Lok Sabha elections 2019 

In 2019, Amit Shah led the BJP campaign and gave the party its second and even larger mandate, heralding PM Modi's second term. Shah - a first-time Lok Sabha MP from Gandhinagar, Gujarat after defeating Congress' two-time MLA CJ Chavda won the seat in record-breaking victory margin of party veteran LK Advani from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. Shah who is the chief strategist of the BJP campaign and is instrumental for building the BJP in the grassroots-level on a pan India basis was sworn in as India's youngest full-time serving Home Minister in June 2019.

He has been instrumental in passing major legislature like the UAPA Amendment Bill, NIA Bill, the NRC implementation and the most contentious of all - abrogation of Article 370 - bifurcating Jammu-Kashmir into two Union territories. He has also led success poll campaigns in Maharashtra and Haryana where the BJP is slated to win single-handedly. Known as PM Modi's right-hand man, Shah has set his eyes on the other states where Congress still has some presence.

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