Amit Shah: The man behind BJP’s UP surge

A new dawn has arrived in India as the country witnessed a political revolution after three decades. The historical mandate to BJP-led NDA has been driven by the unprecedented results from caste-ridden state of Uttar Pradesh.  The state has not only stunned the political pundits of the country    it has also send a message to the politicians across the spectrum. The message is loud and clear – UP chooses development, good governance and equal opportunity. Modi has able to touch the soul of heartland of North India with his development speech.

Amit Shah the man behind the fairytale of BJP’s 2014 election win in UP has indeed able to turn around the story and delivered an unimaginable performance for the party. Under Amit Shah’s supervision BJP fought Lok Sabha polls in UP and won 73 seats out of total 80 constituency.

It was a not a simple fairytale for Amit Shah. When Supreme Court ordered him to stay away from Gujarat a year ago, Narendra Modi asked him to go to Uttar Pradesh and use the opportunity. And Shah did that for his ‘saheb’ with unmistakable strategy and unbelievable hard work.

Known for party’s best political strategist, Amit Shah arrived in UP last year as the in charge of poll panel in the state which delivers largest number of the seats to the parliament. It was never come-see-conquer for Shah but a reversal situation.  He soon found out BJP’s pathetic situation in the state with no single leader available to be projected as face of the party in UP. BJP has almost lost its significance in UP politics and was pushed to become fourth largest parties in the state after SP, BSP and Congress. With surrounded by Mulayam Singh-Mayawati-Ajit Singh and some Congress leaders – BJP was struggling to even retain its existing importance. Amit Shah understood that without winning UP it would be impossible for BJP to gain power in Delhi. Now when the results are reflecting astonishing and one-sided winning for BJP, it would be very difficult to assess how much effort he had put in place for BJP to come to the top from scratch.

Despite being an “outsider”, Shah banked on his excellent organisational skills and started working from the ground level. He had travelled 93,000 km by road and rail in the last one year. He spent over 142 nights in villages and towns of different UP districts. In addressed meetings in 52 districts and almost reached all 80 constituencies. He interviewed each candidates before and after the selection as well as groomed them.

In his own words, Amit Shah recalled, “I was new to the state. I was aware of that deficiency and so I tried to study the state, its society, economy and its political trends. I also learned what was wrong with BJP. We had not contested panchayat elections in 12 years, and we had disengaged ourselves from district and taluka elections. As a result, a whole army of politically conscious citizens who should have been with us joined other parties simply because we could not provide them with a political avenue. We announced that that from now on we will contest each election and our ranks immediately started swelling. I also did away with the practice of leaving it to candidates to select those who will look after booths in their constituencies because I realized that left to themselves, they would prefer to give the important responsibility to a person of their own community. I ensured that capability was the sole criterion for the selection of who all should look after booths and I am very happy that this worked wonders for us. We also dissolved all booth committees and replaced them with new ones.”

Amit Shah’s strategy to bring Modi to Varanasi helped the party immensely in the eastern UP and adjourning regions as well as influenced cadres to work towards victory. He worked hard towards making the party a unified force. All senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra and Murli Manohar Joshi emerged victorious in UP.

Former Gujarat home minister and controversial figure Amit Shah who prefers to work in the back ground has emerged as warrior for BJP. He single-handedly galvanised BJP workers in the entire state and lead the party to a new high. A close-aide of Modi is now expected to play even greater role in the party organization and in government in coming days.

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