Amit Shah

Early life Amit Anilchandra Shah is born into a Gujarati Hindu Bania family of Mansa on 22 October 1964 at Mumbai. His great-grandfather was the Nagarseth (town's headman/Chief Merchant) of the small Princely state of Mansa. His father, Anilchandra Shah, a businessman from Mansa, owned a successful PVC pipe business.

Shah was involved with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindutva paramilitary organisation, since childhood; he participated in the neighbourhood shakhas (branches) as a boy. He formally became an RSS swayamsevak (volunteer) during his college days in Ahmedabad. At that time, Modi was an RSS pracharak (propagator), working as in-charge of youth activities in the city. Soon after Shah joined the ABVP in the year 1983. Later on, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1987, one year before Modi joined the party.

In 1995, the BJP formed its first government in Gujarat, with Keshubhai Patel as Chief Minister. At that time, the Indian National Congress, the BJP's main rival, was highly influential in rural Gujarat. Modi and Shah worked together to eliminate Congress in the rural areas. Their strategy was to find the second-most influential leader in every village and get them to join the BJP. They created a network of 8,000 influential rural leaders who had lost elections to the pradhan (village chief) post in various villages. Shah became an MLA in February 1997 after winning the by-election. He retained his seat in the 1998 Assembly elections. At one time, he held 12 portfolios: Home, Law and Justice, Prison, Border Security, Civil Defence, Excise, Transport, Prohibition, Home Guards, Gram Rakshak Dal, Police Housing and Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs.

In 2004, the Congress-led government announced its intention to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which they called regressive. Shah piloted the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (Amendment) Bill through the Gujarat State Assembly amid an opposition walk-out.

Shah also played an important role in convincing the Modi government to pass the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Bill, which made religious conversions difficult in the state of Gujarat. Shah portrayed the bill as a measure against forced conversions, although critics claimed that the bill undermined the Indian Constitution. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sheikh had been harassing some marble traders of Rajasthan by demanding protection money. The CBI claimed that two of these marble traders paid Shah to eliminate Sheikh, along with police officers DIG D.G. Vanzara and SP Rajkumar Pandian.

The CBI presented phone call records, which showed that Shah had been in touch with the accused police officers when the victims were in their custody. It also presented videotapes of Patel brothers' conversations with two of Shah's associates at the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB). The Patel brothers, who had several criminal cases against them, also spoke against Shah.

Shah dismissed all the accusations against him as politically motivated. He pointed out that during his tenure as Home Minister, Gujarat was one of the states with a small number of police encounters in the country. He stated that he kept in touch with the police officers on the phone in the normal course of his duties as Home Minister. He accused Congress of misusing the CBI and claimed that only the cases in Gujarat were being scrutinised, while the rest of the country had witnessed around 1,500 encounters during the same period. He said if the CBI had any solid evidence against him, it would have been able to frame charges against him.

D.G. Vanzara was also accused in the Ishrat Jahan case but the CBI did not charge Shah.

Shah was arrested on 25 July 2010 in connection with the Sohrabuddin case. At one time, Shah was considered one of the main contenders for Gujarat Chief Minister. However, his political career was hurt by the arrest; many leaders in the Gujarat government distanced themselves from him. His fellow ministers considered him an autocratic person, who did not have good relations with his colleagues.

Snoopgate In 2013, Shah was accused of having ordered illegal surveillance on a woman in 2009 during his tenure as a home minister. The investigative websites Cobrapost and Gulail released a set of taped audio conversations between Shah and police officer GL Singhal. The tapes had been submitted to the CBI in the Ishrat Jahan case and were leaked to these portals. The calls detail how the state machinery was used to surveil the woman and the IAS officer Pradeep Sharma (who was suspended by the Gujarat government). In the recordings, both Singhal and Shah repeatedly refer to a higher authority as Saheb, which is believed to be Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Shah denied all the accusations against him; he called them political propaganda by his opponents. and she was thankful to the Gujarat government for ensuring her safety. She requested the court to block any investigation, stating it would violate her privacy.

Rise in national politics The Vice-President and chairman, Rajya Sabha, M. Venkaiah Naidu administering the oath as Member, Rajya Sabha to Amit Shah

After Modi became the prime-ministerial candidate of the BJP, Shah's influence also increased in the party. They had been accused of sidelining other BJP leaders, such as Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh. Shah was appointed as a BJP general secretary and given charge of Uttar Pradesh (UP). He was chosen not by Modi, but by Rajnath Singh, who had been impressed by the skills Shah displayed in wresting control of various Congress-controlled organisations in Gujarat.

During his time as a general secretary of the BJP, party members credited Shah with promoting Hindutva, encouraging Hindu voters to reject "protectors of minorities", and opposing Modi's attempts to reconcile with the Muslim community.

2014 general election campaign In Uttar Pradesh Shah's political career, which had declined after his arrest in 2010, revived after the BJP's victory in the 2014 general election. In Uttar Pradesh, where Shah was the in-charge, the BJP and its allies won 73 out of 80 seats. Shah had been made in-charge of the BJP's campaign in Uttar Pradesh on 12 June 2013, less than a year before the elections. Shah covered 76 out of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. He also insisted on Modi contesting election from Varanasi.

Shah convinced Modi to utilise RSS volunteers for grassroots campaigning, which proved highly beneficial for the BJP.

In April 2014, EC barred Shah from conducting any public processions, marches, gatherings and roadshows in Uttar Pradesh due to speeches that were made to outrage the religious feelings and beliefs of different classes.

Outside Uttar Pradesh Shah also played an important role in the BJP's election campaigning strategy outside Uttar Pradesh. He focused on building Modi's image as a strong leader. At times, he opposed even Modi on several strategic campaigning issues. For example, when Modi praised his opponent and prospective post-poll ally Mamata Banerjee, Shah insisted that the BJP must not divert from the "Modi-versus-all" tactic. He was re-elected as the party's president unanimously on 24 January 2016. After becoming the party president, Shah started an aggressive membership drive, and by March 2015, BJP had claimed 100 million members.

In 2014 to 2016, BJP achieved success in Legislative Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and Assam but lost the elections in Delhi and Bihar.

Shah also spearheaded campaigning in the 2017 assembly elections, which resulted in the party's success in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. This was the BJP's greatest run in recent elections; they won 312 seats out of 403. The BJP also progressed in Manipur. The BJP won the 2017 Gujarat Legislative Assembly polls for a record six times and wrested power from Congress during the 2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly polls. In March 2018, the BJP won for the first time in the left-ruled north-eastern state of Tripura, where they won two-thirds of the votes. The BJP also made gains in Nagaland and Meghalaya and formed a government in both states with its allies.

Shah led the BJP to victory in the 2019 Indian general election; he became the most successful BJP president. Shah had given BJP workers a seemingly audacious target of crossing 300 seats (Ab ki Baar 300 paar) an initiative he called "Mission 300 Par". The mission was accomplished under his leadership as party president cementing BJP undisputed king of India's political terrain.

He is an admirer of Chanakya and often referred to as a modern-day Chanakya,

Union Cabinet Minister (2019present) Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, Union Home Minister taking charge of office, in New Delhi on 1 June 2019. The Union Home Secretary, Rajiv Gauba is also seen. Amit Shah taking charge as the Union Minister for Home Affairs, in New Delhi on 1 June 2019Shah took oath as Cabinet Minister on 30 May 2019 and took office as Minister of Home Affairs on 1 June 2019.

Article 370 On 5 August 2019, Shah moved a resolution to scrap Article 370 in the Rajya Sabha and divide the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two, with Jammu and Kashmir serving as one of the union territories, and Ladakh serving as a separate union territory. In September 2019, with reference to the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, he stated that it is an important move towards an "Akhand Bharat".

Unifying language In September 2019, Shah talked about how India needs one unifying language; he said the Hindi language should be spoken to unite the country and represent India in the world. In a tweet, he also appealed to the Indian people to increase the use of the Hindi language.

NRC and CAA On 19 November 2019, Shah declared in the Rajya Sabha of the Indian parliament that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be implemented throughout the country.

In December 2019, he introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, which grants Indian citizenship to religiously persecuted minority communities who migrated to the country before 2015 from the Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. In Northeast India, the act raised concerns about the impact of immigration on local culture and politics, which caused people to protest against the Act. Elsewhere, the opposition parties criticized the Act's exclusion of Muslims as detrimental to India's pluralism. Shah insisted the bill was not anti-Muslim, because it did not change their existing path to citizenship.

In December 2019, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) asked the US administration to consider imposing sanctions against Shah if the Indian parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. USCIRF in its statement said: "CAB is a dangerous turn in the wrong direction; it runs counter to India's rich history of secular pluralism and the Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law regardless of faith." The commission said that the CAB "enshrines a pathway to citizenship for immigrants that specifically excludes Muslims, setting a legal criterion for citizenship based on religion". The external affairs ministry issued a counter-statement in response to USCIRF by saying it was not based on facts and the bill was to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities who arrived in India and does not aim to strip citizenship.

Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill 2022

The bill aims to replace the Identification of Prisoners Act 1920. In the 1980s, the Law Commission of India, in its 87th report, had recommended significant changes to the existing law. The new bill will allow the police and prison authorities to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples, including retina and iris scans, of convicts and persons arrested on various charges. While moving the bill in the Lok Sabha, Shah said "The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, will not only fill those obsolete gap, but it will also widen the scope of evidence for conviction."

AFSPA On 27 March 2024, Amit Shah stated that the central government would contemplate the possibility of repealing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Jammu and Kashmir.

Other In October 2024, the Canadian government alleged that Shah was behind a campaign to intimidate and assassinate members of the Sikh diaspora living in Canada.

Electoral performance

Since 1989, Shah has fought 28 elections to various local bodies.

Election Year Constituency Result Votes % of votes Source Gujarat Legislative Assembly (by-election) 1997 Sarkhej 76,839 56.10% Gujarat Legislative Assembly 1998 Sarkhej 193,373 69.81% Gujarat Legislative Assembly 2002 Sarkhej 288,327 66.98% Gujarat Legislative Assembly 2007 Sarkhej 407,659 68.00% Gujarat Legislative Assembly 2012 Naranpura 103,988 69.19% Indian general election 2019 Gandhinagar 888,21069.76% Indian general election 2024 Gandhinagar 10,10,972 76.5%

Personal life Shah has six sisters, two of whom live in Chicago. On 2 August 2020, Shah tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to the hospital.