Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah was inducted into the Cabinet of the Narendra Modi government at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday. Shah took oath after the prime minister and the party’s veteran leader Rajnath Singh, who was the home minister in the previous Modi government.
Shah and other ministers’ portfolios have not been announced yet. Before the oath-taking ceremony began, BJP’s chief in Gujarat Jitu Vaghani tweeted a congratulatory message, saying Shah would join the Union Cabinet. The BJP president made his Lok Sabha election debut this year and won by a massive margin from Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat.
There was much speculation about whether Amit Shah would be a part of Modi’s Cabinet, as some analysts had been of the view that the BJP president would prefer to run the party in light of upcoming Assembly elections in some crucial states such as West Bengal. Shah will not be able to retain his post of party president if he holds a Cabinet portfolio.
Shah, the son of a Gujarati businessman, grew up in Mehsana city and became associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at a young age. He joined the BJP in 1986 and won his first state Assembly election in 1997.
He has been a key aide of Modi’s and gone on to be the prime minister’s closest colleague and confidant. He has also been thought to be instrumental in the party’s huge victories in states such as Uttar Pradesh, and now, West Bengal.
Shah served as the home minister of Gujarat before being becoming a member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat. He took over as BJP president in 2014.
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