Amit Shah Biography

Who is Amit Shah?

Amit Shah (born: 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician and currently the Home Minister of India. Prior to this, he has been the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Home Minister of the state of Gujarat, India, and the General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha from Gandhi Nagar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Prior to this, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha. After being made the Home Minister of India in the second term of the Modi government, he took a big decision to remove Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, which was often considered impossible when Congress was in power.

Early life and education

Amit Shah was born on 22 October 1964 in a business family in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He belongs to a wealthy family in Gujarat. His family was a Gujarati Hindu Vaishnava Bania family. His village is in Chandur, Patan district. After his initial education in Mehsana, he came to Ahmedabad to study Biochemistry, from where he did BSc in Biochemistry. After that, he started taking care of his father's business. Before joining politics, he used to handle the family business of plastic pipes in Mansa. He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at a very young age. In 1982, during his college days, Shah met Narendra Modi. In 1983, he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and thus became a political leader in his student life.

Amit Shah Family

Father’s Name	- Anilchandra Shah
Mother’s Name	- Kusumben
Sister’s Name	- Aarti Shah
Wife’s Name -	Sonal Shah
Children name -	Jai Shah

The political career Amit Shah

Shah joined the BJP in 1987. In 1987, he was made a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. Shah got his first major political opportunity in 1991 when he took charge of campaigning for Advani in the Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency. The second chance came in 1996 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee decided to contest from Gujarat. In this election too, he took over the responsibility of campaigning. Amit Shah, a stockbroker by profession, started his political career in 1997 by winning the by-election from the Sarkhej assembly seat in Gujarat. In 1999, he was elected the President of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB). In 2009, he became the Vice President of the Gujarat Cricket Association. He became the President of the Gujarat Cricket Association in 2014 after Narendra Modi stepped down as the President. From 2003 to 2010, he held the responsibility of the Home Ministry in the cabinet of the Government of Gujarat.

He represented the Sarkhej Legislative Assembly constituency thrice before contesting his assembly elections from Naranupra Legislative Assembly Constituency in 2012. He has been elected MLA from the Sarkhej Assembly Constituency of Gujarat four times since 1997 (by-election), 1998, 2002, and 2007 respectively. He is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah came into the limelight when Pranesh was killed along with 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan, Zeeshan Johar, and Amjad Ali Rana in an alleged fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad in 2004. The Gujarat Police had claimed that these people had come to kill Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to avenge the post-Godhra riots in 2002. In this case, Gopinath Pillai had made an application in the court and appealed to make Amit Shah an accused in the case. However, on 15 May 2014, a special CBI court dismissed the petition as there was insufficient evidence against Shah.

There came a time when he had to face arrest on 25 July 2010 in connection with the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. The biggest attack on Shah was by his very special suspended officer of Gujarat Police, DG Banjara. Then the BJP had only 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state. His organizational skills and leadership abilities were evident when the results of the 16th Lok Sabha elections were declared on 16 May 2014. The BJP beat 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh. This was the biggest victory for the BJP so far in the state. Amit Shah, the architect of this charismatic victory, grew so much within the party that he was given the post of President of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Personal life of Amit Shah

Shah was married to Sonal Shah, from whom he had a son, whose name was Jai. Amit Shah was very close to his mother, who died of an illness on 8 June 2010, a month before his arrest.

Turnaround of co-operative bank

Amit Shah was appointed as the chairman of the Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank (ADCB) in 2000. ADCB was in deep trouble and needed visionary leadership.

 The bank had a loss of about 36 crores and one lakh rupees. The bank was on the brink of closure. Amit Shah took over the reins of the bank and within a year changed its fortunes.

Within a year, he posted a profit of Rs 27 crore. Amit Shah also ensured that most of the directors of the bank remained loyal to the BJP.

Amit Shah's Net Worth

Net Worth (Net Worth 2021)	Rs. 38.81 crores (as of 2019)
Salary	Rs. 1 lakh + other allowances

Electoral achievements

Between 1989 and 2014, Shah contested 42 major and minor elections to the Gujarat State Legislative Assembly and various local bodies, but he was not defeated in a single election. His achievements in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections are as follows-

Election Year Constituency Result Vote % Vote Percentage Source

Gujarat Assembly Elections (by-elections) 1997 Sarkhej victorious 76839 56.10% 

Gujarat assembly elections 1998 Sarkhej victorious 193,373 69.81% 

Gujarat Assembly Elections 2002 Sarkhej victorious 288,327 66.98% 

Gujarat Assembly Elections 2007 Sarkhej won 407,659 68.00% 

Gujarat Assembly Election 2012 Naranpura victorious 103,988 69.19% 

General Elections to Lok Sabha 2019 Gandhinagar Winner 888,210 69.76%