Amit Shah debuts as Cabinet minister

Agencies

May 30, 2019

New Delhi, May 30: BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday was sworn-in as a cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government.

Shah was the third in line, after Modi and Rajnath Singh, to take the oath, administered by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Portfolios of the new council of ministers are yet to be announced.

Speculation over Shah getting a cabinet berth was rife ever since the resounding victory of the BJP and its allies in the Lok Sabha elections. From a party worker to a cabinet minister, Shah has had a meteoric rise in the BJP.

Born in Mumbai in 1964, he was brought up at his paternal village in Maansa, Gujarat till the age of 16.

According to his website, as a young boy, he was always inspired by the stories of the great patriots of the nation and dreamt of working for the progress of the motherland.

He was especially inspired and influenced by the nationalist spirit and vision of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) and became its active member in Ahmedabad, it says.

Shah worked for Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of RSS for some time before he joined BJP in 1984-85. There, Shah was noted for his organisational skills and was appointed the national treasurer of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and subsequently the state secretary and state vice-president of the party in Gujarat.

With his excellent election management expertise, Shah managed the campaign of BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani's election from Ahmedabad constituency in 1989.

During these years, Shah came in contact with Narendra Modi- then a rising star in the BJP.

He and Narendra Modi, who was then an organisational secretary of the party in Gujarat, helped BJP mobilise its workers, which bore fruitful results for the party in subsequent elections.

BJP came to power in Gujarat in 1995. However, its government fell in 1997. According to the BJP president's website, Shah successfully contested the Assembly Elections from Sarkhej that followed the BJP government's fall.

BJP returned to power in the state with Narendra Modi as its Chief Minister in 2002. Shah handled several key portfolios in the state government including the Home Ministry.

Shah took over as the BJP president soon after NDA emerged victorious in 2014 general elections. A trusted lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he was appointed party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh just ahead of the 2014 national elections.

With his sharp political acumen, Shah helped the party and its allies win 73 out of 80 seats in the state leading PM Modi to proclaim him as "man-of-the-match" of BJP's victory.

Indeed, as the captain of the winning team, Shah deserves credit for turning the party into an election-winning machine. With one Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls of Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Jammu-Kashmir, Assam, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, his record as the BJP president has been unmatchable.

It is 2019 now and the BJP led by Shah has scripting history by becoming the first party in India, since 1971, to return with full majority.

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Over 58 lakh names dropped from draft voter list in Bengal ahead of polls

News Network

December 16,2025

The deletion of over 58 lakh names from West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls following a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has sparked widespread concern and is likely to deepen political tensions in the poll-bound state.

According to the Election Commission, the revision exercise has identified 24 lakh voters as deceased, 19 lakh as relocated, 12 lakh as missing, and 1.3 lakh as duplicate entries. The draft list, published after the completion of the first phase of SIR, aims to remove errors and duplication from the electoral rolls.

However, the scale of deletions has raised fears that a large number of eligible voters may have been wrongly excluded. The Election Commission has said that individuals whose names are missing can file objections and seek corrections. The final voter list is scheduled to be published in February next year, after which the Assembly election announcement is expected. Notably, the last Special Intensive Revision in Bengal was conducted in 2002.

The development has intensified the political row over the SIR process. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress have strongly opposed the exercise, accusing the Centre and the Election Commission of attempting to disenfranchise lakhs of voters ahead of the elections.

Addressing a rally in Krishnanagar earlier this month, Banerjee urged people to protest if their names were removed from the voter list, alleging intimidation during elections and warning of serious consequences if voting rights were taken away.

The BJP, meanwhile, has defended the revision and accused the Trinamool Congress of politicising the issue to protect what it claims is an illegal voter base. Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the ruling party fears losing power due to the removal of deceased, fake, and illegal voters.

The controversy comes amid earlier allegations by the Trinamool Congress that excessive work pressure during the SIR led to the deaths by suicide of some Booth Level Officers (BLOs), for which the party blamed the Election Commission. With the draft list now out, another round of political confrontation appears imminent.

As objections begin to be filed, the focus will be on whether the correction mechanism is accessible, transparent, and timely—critical factors in ensuring that no eligible voter is denied their democratic right ahead of a crucial election.

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