New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been a familiar face in the country’s politics even before becoming part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet in 2019. Know for remarkable organisational and management skills, Shah has been PM Modi’s most trusted person when it comes to trouble shooting.
For his backroom contribution in bringing BJP to power in Gujarat, to massive BJP expansion of BJP at pan-India level, 60-year-old Shah has played a crucial role in building today’s saffron party.
As Shah turns 60 today, let’s have a look at some of the lesser know facts about him:
- Amit Shah was born on October 22, 1964 in Mumbai in a Gujarati family
- Shah’s great grandfather was the Nagarseth (Capital city chief) of Mansa. His father, Anil Chandra Shah owned a successful PVC pipe business in Mansa.
- Shah completed his school education in Mehsana in Gujarat and moved to Ahmedabad to study biochemistry at CU Shah Science College
- During his college days, Amit Shah joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS. He officially joined BJP in 1987.
- Before joining politics fulltime, Shah also worked as a stockbroker and in co-operative bank in Ahmedabad
- Amit Shah met Narendra Modi for the first time in 1982 when Modi was an RSS pracharak (propagator) in Ahmedabad. If reports are to be believed, it was Modi who encouraged Shah to join ABVP. Shah later joined BJP in 1987.
- Due to his organisational skills, Amit Shah rose in the BJYM hierarchy while holding several posts like ward secretary, taluka secretary, state secretary and general secretary.
- His management skills came to be known while he was the election campaign manager for LK Advani during the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.
- Shah was elected as the president of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB) in 1999, the country’s biggest cooperative bank.
- Before becoming the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association in 2014, Amit Shah has also served as the president of the Gujarat State Chess Association.
- Since 2014 when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, Shah has emerged as ‘modern-day Chanakya’ due to management and organisational skills.
- In July 2014, Shah was unanimously elected as BJP President. During his second term as the party chief, Shah launched an aggressive BJP membership drive and took the party’s membership count to 100 million.
