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Shah completes two years’ tenure as BJP president

After Bihar debacle under Shah, the BJP managed to expand its influence from its strongholds in “Kashmir to Kanyakumari” and from “Kamakhya to Kutch”.  

From Prime Minister Narendra Modi's convincing election win—which gave one party a majority in the lower house of Parliament for the first time in three decades to remarkable result of Assam Assembly polls, Mr. Shah could re-strategize organisational  planning. His rise to the top of the party is credited in large part to his role in Mr. Modi's landslide electoral victory in May, 2014.

Shah was born on October 22, 1964. At an age of 14, Shah joined the Rashtriya Syawamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a ‘Tarun Syawamsevak’. In 1982, as a student of bio-chemistry, he was handed over the responsibility of the secretary of the students’ organisation ABVP in Ahmedabad. He later became the secretary of BJP Ahmedabad city unit.

Shah held many crucial posts of the Gujarat unit of BJP. He became the national treasurer of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in 1997 and later the Vice President of the Gujarat State unit of the BJP.

Shah, a longtime confidante of  Modi, was known as the second-most important man in the western state of Gujarat during Mr. Modi's more than 10-year tenure as the chief minister there. His elevation was also a sign of Modi's political power. Shah, who was charged with murder in connection with the deaths of three people allegedly killed in 2005 by Gujarat police. However, the apex court dismissed a petition by activist Harsh Mander that asked for Shah to be tried in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh Encounter case. 

Shah has strenuously defended Modi from allegations that he didn't do enough to prevent religious riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which 1,000 people died, most of them Muslims. However, an Indian court said in 2013 that there wasn't sufficient evidence to prosecute him.

In these two years, the MLA from Naranpura in Gujarat has radically transformed his party, leading it to an unprecedented following but also bringing about a debatable change in its basic character.
Meanwhile, the speculation is also around that Shah may announce his new team after making mark in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

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