NEW DELHI: With the emerging party as No. 1 in Maharashtra and set to form the state government, and the absolute winner Haryana, Amit Shah has become the most influential man in the BJP after Narendra Modi. Even for Modi, Shah is the man to take - the one who can turn without mercy popular appeal of PM bags of votes.
To gain the full confidence of Modi has not been easy. Here's an example of the commitment because the BJP Shah. His helicopter was about to land in Pune when it received a distress call from a BJP candidate somewhere in the region of Konkan. The candidate had become a bundle of nerves that night after learning that Goa CM Manohar Parrikar would not be able to get to the meeting in his constituency.
BJP chief calmed. Although major party leaders had expected that in Pune, Shah asked his pilot to fly Konkan. He went to the meeting there and got an insight too - the crowd convinced him that the decision to sever ties with Shiv Sena was right. Arriving in Mumbai, he called for a strategy session well past midnight.
Shah says he is a 24/7 politician who took the gamble of going it alone in Maharashtra and Haryana when even your supporters advised against taking the risk just after setbacks in assembly bypolls. The 'bold' paid off, and Shah was on Sunday the toast of the party - a stunning transformation for the man who had to leave Gujarat just a couple of years in the court orders.
The decision to plow their own furrow in Maharashtra and Haryana was not an easy decision. It was the first time that the BJP traditionally forced to play a complementary Shiv Sena, contested the 288 seats in Maharashtra.
In Haryana, the party making contest all 90 seats, five years ago, but that was only because I could not find an ally. The result of 2009 - just four seats - would have been an impediment to a similar effort.
Besides a setback for the party would have dented the aura of Modi, validating the suggestion that the results of Lok Sabha were an aberration and that the Modi wave had receded.
In Haryana, said Kuldip Bishnoi to settle for 25 seats and suspended talks Haryana Janhit Congress when they insisted on a 50:50 split, most chief ministership as a condition to continue the partnership. "Their demands are disproportionate to her strength as a defendant in the LS elections," Shah is learned to have bluntly said Bishnoi whose party lost both Lok Sabha seats it contested.
Having taken the plunge, Shah quickly put together an efficient machine for converting Modi's popularity into votes. He made no provision for considerations or reputation faction in the distribution of tickets. Joining the ruthless eligibility was instrumental Haryana due to widespread suspicion in the game they played a very important side considerations in the distribution of tickets in the previous election paper.
Shah wheels off Modi as its "main battle tank", but made good use of available light artillery, organizing over 700 meetings of the leaders of the parties of different sizes. He himself went to 27 and 20 meetings in Maharashtra and Haryana, evolving from a strategist an activist.
But while he might come across as a miracle for those who have recently started following child, Shah was a former practitioner of "take-no-prisoners" policy. In Gujarat, where BJP leaders had appeared content after toppling the Congress and empowerment, which, encouraged by Modi, written and ceaselessly worked to end the domination of the Congress of local bodies, cooperative institutions and sporting bodies.
The same approach was evident at the time of the LS elections in UP, when, despite being a complete unknown to the state, raised an army of volunteers to make up for the anemic organizational structure.
Shah was visibly jubilant Sunday when it was reported to the media. But those who know him say he will not rest on our laurels and quickly move to new targets - Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
