After a landslide victory in the Assembly elections in December 2002 , which followed the communal riots earlier in the year, the then Chief Minister (and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi) dropped junior Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia, a close aide of former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and staunch VHP loyalist.
He was replaced by Amit Shah, a legislator from Sarkhej , who made it to the Cabinet for the first time. Mr. Shah was made junior Minister of Home and several other departments.
Power centre
Though a first-time Minister, Mr. Shah had already established himself as a powerful BJP leader in the State. He was chairman of the Gujarat State Financial Corporation (GSFC) and wrested control of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADC) from Congress leader Dasarath Patel in the late 1990s.
Despite his junior rank, he soon emerged as the main trouble shooter for the government, whose writ ran much beyond his own departments. He virtually became No. 2 in the Cabinet, whose opinion was important in all major decisions.
“In the government, No. 2 was Vajubhai Vala, then Finance Minister , but that was only theoretical. For all practical purposes, Amitbhai was the most important person after CM Modi,” a retired bureaucrat, who served in several important positions, told The Hindu .
From January 2003, when he became a Minister, till July 2010 when he was implicated in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and arrested by the CBI, Mr. Shah was involved in all major political, administrative and policy decisions of the Gujarat government.
After a brief period of three months in the Sabarmati jail, Mr. Shah was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court but was immediately forced out of the State by the Supreme Court. This forced exile afforded him a rare opportunity to be involved in the BJP’s national organisation.
From his base in Delhi, he travelled extensively across the country, particularly Uttar Pradesh to revive the party’s organisational base before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Just a few months before the 2012 Assembly polls in Gujarat, Mr Shah’s bail was formalised by the Supreme Court and he was allowed to re-enter Gujarat. He did contest the Assembly polls and win but did not join the cabinet; instead he focused on Uttar Pradesh to prepare for the 2014 Lok Sabha general election, as BJP general secretary in charge of the State.
After the party’s victory in 2014, Mr. Shah became party president replacing Rajnath Singh. In August 2017, he became a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat.
In 2019, Mr. Shah replaced party patriarch L.K. Advani to contest from Gandhinagar. Mr. Advani, who held the seat for more than two decades, was Deputy PM and Home Minister till 2004 in the Vajpayee cabinet. Now, almost a decade and half later, the MP from Gandhinagar is again Union Home Minister.
And again, Mr. Shah may not be No. 2 in the Cabinet by seniority, but de facto , he will be the No. 2 in every respect in the Union government.
