Amit Anilchandra Shah is an Indian politician and the current Minister of Home Affairs who has been President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2014. He was elected to the lower House of Parliament the Lok Sabha in the 2019 Indian general election from Gandhinagar. He was earlier elected as a member of the upper House of Parliament Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in 2017. He is the chief strategist of the BJP and closet aide and brain behind Narendra Modi's rise He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of 14 and met Narendra Modi for the first time in 1982. The same year, Amit Shah became the secretary of the RSS' student body Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). He joined the BJP in 1986. In the mid 1990s, BJP formed the government in Gujarat with Keshubhai Patel as the chief minister. At that time, the Indian National Congress was highly influential in the rural areas of Gujarat. Amit Shah, along with Narendra Modi, was given the responsibility by the party high command to undermine Congress' influence in the state. Shah and Modi were able to convince a large number of people to join BJP. Many of these people had lost elections for the Village Chief's post in their respective villages. In October 2001 Narendra Modi was appointed as the chief minister of Gujarat and Keshubhai Patel was removed by BJP high command on account of poor administrative performance. Consequently, Amit Shah also gained political prominence in the state. Both Modi and Shah managed to sideline their political rivals. Amit Shah registered a thumping victory in the 2002 Gujarat Legislative Assembly Elections from Sarkhej assembly segment with a margin of close to 1,60,000 votes. Shah was given multiple ministerial portfolios simultaneously in the Narendra Modi government after his victory in the 2002 elections. In 2004, the UPA-led central government decided to repeal the Prevention of Terror Acts (POTA) law, but Amit Shah managed to get the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime (GCOC) Bill passed in the state assembly. Amit Shah also played a key role in the passing of the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act which would make religious conversions difficult. The bill faced a lot of opposition but Shah defended it successfully. Amit Shah's political career was infused with a new life after BJP's thumping victory in the 2014 Indian General Elections. Narendra Modi's accession as the Prime Minister of India increased Shah's influence in the party. Amit Shah was chosen by the then party president Rajnath Singh as in-charge for Uttar Pradesh. He was appointed as the party's General Secretary. Under Amit Shah's supervision, BJP did exceptionally well in Uttar Pradesh registering victory by occupying 73 out of 80 parliamentary seats in the state. In July 2014, he was unanimously appointed as the BJP's national president replacing veteran party leader Rajnath Singh. He was re-elected to the post unanimously in January, 2016.