Amit Shah,
India’s Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, the body that
administers cooperatives in the country, turned 58 on October 22, 2022. A
leader who rose to national prominence after Narendra Modi won the Union
elections in 2014, Amit Shah is often referred to as a present-day Chanakya by
sections of the Indian media. Shah’s role as a political strategist is credited
for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s massive wins in the 2014 and 2019 elections as
well as in various state Assembly polls.

Who is
Amit Shah?

Amit Shah
was born on October 22, 1964 in Mumbai, Maharashtra in a Gujarati Hindu
Vaishnava family. Shah’s father, Anil Chandra Shah, owned a successful PVC pipeline
business. Amit Shah’s great grandfather was the Nagarseth (capital city chief)
of the once-state of Mansa.

Amit Shah
did his schooling from Mehsana in Gujarat. He subsequently proceeded to study
biochemistry at the CU Shah Science College and graduated with a Bachelor of
Science (BSc) degree. After college, Shah joined his father’s PVC business.

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Amit Shah’s
association with politics began while he was a student. He was a member of the
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In fact, Shah also used to attend RSS shakhas for
children as a child.

Amit Shah
and Narendra Modi met for the first time in 1982. Modi, currently India’s prime
minister, was an RSS pracharak at the time, working as the youth-in charge in
Ahmedabad.

Amit Shah
joined the BJP a year before Narendra Modi, in 1987. He became an activist of
the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and rose through the hierarchy.

Shah’s
chops for electoral campaigns became known when he worked as the election
campaign manager for Lal Krishna Advani when the leader stood from Gandhinagar
in the 1991 Lok Sabha polls.

When the
BJP replaced the Congress in the state Assembly in Gujarat and Keshubhai Patel
took over as chief minister, Shah and Modi worked relentlessly to oust the
Congress from the state’s rural ramparts and then sports bodies.

In 2002,
Amit Shah contested the Gujarat Assembly elections from Sarkhej constituency in
Ahmedabad. He won by the highest margin on all candidates – 1,58,036 votes. In
course of Narendra Modi’s 12-year reign of Gujarat, Shah emerged as one of the
most powerful political leaders.

In 2014,
Amit Shah played a big role in Narendra Modi’s ascendance to power at the
Centre. He served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2014 to 2019.

Following
the 2019 elections, Amit Shah became the union home minister, the youngest
Indian politician to become the home minister at age 54. Amit Shah is also the
Minister of Cooperation.