From booth level worker to BJP president: Meet the master strategist transforming Modi's lotus

The records those Amit Shah has delivered for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is something that would be difficult to repeat. With one Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls of Maharashtra (2014), Haryana (2014), Jharkhand, Jammu-Kashmir, Assam, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, Shah deserves credit for turning the BJP into an election winning machine.

The national president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Home Minister is celebrating his 55th birthday today. On this occasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several political leaders extended their wishes to Shah.

Known as PM Modi's right hand, Amit Shah rose through the party ranks with his excellent organisational and management skills.

Shah was elected as an MLA from Sarkhej in four consecutive elections: 1997 (by-election), 1998, 2002 and 2007. He had held a number of portfolios in the state government during Modi's tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat. He is the MLA from Naranpura, elected in the 2012 elections.

Shah was the BJP's in-charge for India's largest and most politically crucial state, Uttar Pradesh, during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP and its allies swept the entire state, registering their best ever performance, by winning 73 out of 80 seats. As a result, Shah rose to national prominence and was appointed as the party's national president in July 2014.

Here are some facts on Amit Shah:

• 
  Shah originally hails from Mumbai but his family relocated to Gujarat's Mansa.
• Shah, who is the current president of the world's largest party, had initially worked as a booth level and party worker of the Janata Dal in the 1970s.
• Shah met Modi in the year of 1982, and since then two leaders have led the BJP to victory in several states as well as national elections.
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  Shah had spent some time in jail in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case in 2010, but later got bail.
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  His prominence to the national stage started when he was appointed Rajya Sabha member in 2017 and later the BJP President.
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  Shah's excellent political skills as the BJP president, along with PM Modi helped the BJP score big on its major rival Congress.

In 2017, he led the party towards landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and marked the party's strong debut in Manipur, but the Akali-BJP alliance lost power in Punjab.

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