Explained : Amit Shah | Indian Politician, BJP Leader, Career, Family, & Facts and Its Impact

Political strategist

In 2013 the BJP’s central leadership picked Modi as their candidate for prime minister in the 2014 general election. As Modi’s political locus shifted from Gujarat to New Delhi, so did Shah’s. In recognition of Shah’s proficiency in election campaign management, he was appointed general secretary of the party and given charge of poll strategy for the key state of Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of elected representatives (80 seats out of 543) to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament.

The BJP won the 2014 elections, with 282 seats, well past the target of 272. The victory was powered by the party’s unprecedented win in 71 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 seats. Its successful campaign in the state was ascribed to Shah’s political acumen. Modi became the second BJP prime minister, after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Shah, who did not contest the polls, was elected the party’s national president, a powerful position that he held until 2020.

Home minister

In 2017 Shah was elected to the Rajya Sabha, or upper house of the Indian parliament. Two years later he fought the general election to the Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar, winning the seat. The BJP returned to power with an even larger mandate than in 2014, winning 303 seats, and Modi continued as prime minister. Shah had played an important strategic role in the BJP’s political gains in the election, including expanding the party’s previously nominal presence in such states as Odisha and Telangana. In 2019 he was made minister for home affairs in the second Modi government. Shah retained the post in Modi’s third term after the BJP won the general election of 2024, this time without an absolute majority. It won 240 seats, well below the target, but, with help from allies, it formed the government, with a total of 293 seats.

As home minister in charge of internal security, Shah oversaw two of the most important and controversial political changes made by the Modi government: the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, and an amendment to the Citizenship Act. Both changes had been poll promises included in the BJP’s manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Article 370, a contentious provision in the Constitution that gave the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir special status and a high degree of internal autonomy, was removed in 2019, soon after the BJP’s election victory. At the same time, Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded from statehood and reorganized into two union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The government’s stated intent in removing the deeply divisive Article 370 was to confront separatism and militancy in the troubled region. Critics, however, condemned it as an attempt to change the local demographics in favor of Hindus.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA, passed by the parliament in 2019, granted Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The eligible minorities listed were Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians. It was the first time that religion had been used to determine citizenship of India. In parallel, a National Register of Citizens (NRC) was created, ostensibly to combat illegal immigration. As of 2024 the NRC had been implemented only in the state of Assam.

These changes received a mixed response within the country. Although the BJP’s supporters welcomed the delivery of two of the party’s key electoral promises, there was widespread censure of what were seen as strategic decisions by a pro-Hindutva government to discriminate against the country’s Muslim population, reduce its numbers, and exclude it from citizenship. Countrywide protests were organized by students, civil society, and opposition parties against the CAA and the NRC. The latter, which was particularly opposed in the northeastern states of India, was removed from the BJP’s election manifesto for 2024.