Like Modi, banishment from Gujarat helped Amit Shah

AHMEDABAD: Sniffing an opportunity in adversity has been one of the biggest strengths of 51-year-old Amit Shah, BJP's youngest national president who was once an avid player in the stock market.

When the Supreme Court barred his entry into Gujarat after the Gujarat High Court granted him bail in October 2010 in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh fake encounter case, a homesick Shah chose not to complain. He instead entrenched himself in Delhi and worked hard to boost his party's prospects in the all-important state of Uttar Pradesh.

This is exactly what his mentor Narendra Modi had done when he was banished from Gujarat in 1995 after being accused of interfering in government affairs as BJP's state organizing secretary. The six-year period between 1995 and 2001 proved to be a blessing in disguise for Modi to build a following for himself.

Citing his own example, Modi, who had spotted a spark in this RSS worker in the mid-1980s, convinced him to take on bigger responsibilities. A science graduate, Shah mostly camped at Gujarat Bhawan in New Delhi. Much of the credit for the party's excellent results in UP in the parliamentary polls—and subsequently in states like Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand—is being given to Shah's hard work in galvanizing cadres and choice of candidates. Once considered a natural successor of Modi as Gujarat CM, Shah's political rise has been even more spectacular than Modi's. His legal problems may remain, however, till the matter is finally disposed by the SC.

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