NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday elevated controversial leader Amit Shah to the post of its new party president, ignoring a convention that a person being tried for murder could not be given the office.

Mr Shah is a close aide from Gujrat of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is being tried in the so-called Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing after spending some days in jail.

The 50-year old politician is widely credited as the architect of Mr Modi’s astounding electoral victory, especially for fetching the BJP 73 of the 80 seats in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

Civil rights activists have accused Mr Shah of fomenting anti-Muslim violence in Muzaffarnagar in the run up to the April-May elections setting a communally divisive verdict.

Amit Shah is accused of fomenting anti-Muslim violence

“Modi has established full control of both the government and his party by having Amit Shah appointed as BJP President,” wrote senior columnist M.K. Venu on NDTV’s blog.

He said Mr Shah is there because he understands Mr Modi like no one else does. Such is the nature of their relationship that Mr Shah possibly sees himself as Mr Modi’s alter ego in many respects.

Mr Modi, the writer said, had stood by Amit Shah “through his worst travails in Gujarat when the latter was arrested and put in jail in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing case.”

He rehabilitated Mr Shah after his release from prison on bail and later gave him the responsibility of managing UP in the general elections.

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“Shah had proved his skills in Gujarat at managing assembly victories with small percentage vote shifts. The UP election outcome pitch-forked Amit Shah to another league altogether as an organisation man.”

Addressing a news conference, outgoing party president and Home Minister Rajnath Singh lauded Mr Shah’s “management skills” and credited him with the BJP’s success in Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh.

Considered an invaluable deputy to any leader, he has taken less than a year to catapult himself from a Gujarat BJP strongman to the party’s supremo on the national stage.

Most leaders in the BJP agree that Mr Shah, who was associated with the RSS in his early days, has earned every bit of his success.

Published in Dawn, July 10th, 2014