‘BJP can’t afford to lose Amit Shah’

New Delhi, May 30: As Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi is scheduled to take oath on Thursday evening, a big question is being asked whether Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah will be part of the Modi cabinet or not.

Shah has won the Lok Sabha election from Gandhinagar seat in Gujarat. Since he has been elected, speculations are rife about his joining Modi cabinet.

Many reports have claimed that he may replace former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has decided to opt out on health grounds.

However, a socialist political leader tells OneIndia that the BJP can't afford to lose Shah at this juncture.

"Shah has a major contribution in Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi's success. Modi is going to head the next government and he would need numbers in the Rajya Sabha to pass important Bills. Shah with his organisational skills is capable of strengthening the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the Rajya Sabha. In the view of upcoming Assembly elections in various states, the BJP can't afford to lose Amit Shah," says the leader.

"The Modi government can function without Shah but the BJP can't repeat its success journey without Shah. It's rarely reported that the BJP before Shah and Modi and after them is completely different. Since both Modi and Shah are on the same wavelength, they are able to eradicate Congress culture within the BJP," opined the socialist leader.

It's notable that Amit Shah has proved his organisational skills on many occasions.

He had become nationally famous after stitching BJP's scintillating victory from Uttar Pradesh in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In UP, where Shah was the in-charge, BJP and its allies won 73 out of 80 seats. Shah had been made in charge of BJP's UP campaigning on June 12, 2013, less than a year before the elections.

In July 2014, BJP's Central Parliamentary Board unanimously approved Amit Shah's appointment as president of the party. Since then he has been instrumental in forming BJP's governments in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Tripura. BJP also made gains in Nagaland and Meghalaya and formed government in both states with its allies.

Currently, the BJP-led NDA has 99 Rajya Sabha members and the majority number in the Upper House of the Parliament is 124.

As many as 10 Rajya Sabha seats will fall vacant in Uttar Pradesh in 2020 and the BJP's huge majority in the state means it can win nine of those.

Assembly polls are due in some states like Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jharkhand later this year where the BJP is in power. The BJP is eyeing to form its government in Delhi, where elections will be held next year, and in West Bengal, where elections are due in 2021.

If BJP retains Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and snatches Delhi from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and West Bengal from Trinamool Congress (TMC) then by 2021 the NDA will have majority in the Rajya Sabha.

According to the socialist leader, only Modi as prime minister and Shah as BJP president can achieve it.