Amit Shah’s appointment as BJP president is not surprising. It is in line with the party’s tradition of appointing as the organisational head, at a time when it is in power, someone who is seen to enjoy the support of the prime minister and who would not be likely to strike out as an alternative power centre. Shah has been a powerful aide of Narendra Modi in Gujarat, and owes much of his meteoric rise in the party to his proximity to the man who is now PM. Yet, Shah is no symbolic head or political lightweight. And, as he comes to his new high-profile assignment, he doesn’t travel light.
He carries with him the shadow of the Sohrabuddin fake encounter cases in which he has been chargesheeted as the key accused and conspirator. In 2010, he had to resign as minister of state for home in Gujarat and serve time in prison. Those cases have not reached closure. More recently, designing and leading his party’s campaign for UP, where the tally of 73 out of 80 seats is attributed to his leadership, Shah was banned by the Election Commission from addressing public meetings because of a “hate speech” in the state’s riot-scarred western region — the ban was lifted, but only after Shah promised to mind his language. In between, Shah’s name figured in the Snoopgate case, in which the Gujarat government has been accused of deploying state machinery to stalk a young woman. In other words, both his career in Gujarat and his successes in UP have an underside that could return to haunt the party as it seeks to spread into newer regions in a year of crucial assembly elections.
