Amit Shah to head BJP again, expected to revamp party organisation soon

An emphatic victory in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's man Friday in Gujarat politics was the Shah of Delhi within no time. Amit Shah is set to steer the Bharatiya Janata Party for a second term as its party chief when he completes his election formalities on Sunday.

When Rajnath Singh abdicated party president's post to join the Cabinet, Shah was the natural claimant for the top organisation post. The honeymoon period in power continued through the 2014 from Jharkhand to Maharashtra and Jammu Kashmir to Haryana.

But then it was a massive drubbing for the BJP at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party. Master electoral strategist for all these years faced an aggressive upstart and perhaps his first comprehensive electoral mauling.

The ride since then for Shah has been quite bumpy.

A few months later in Bihar elections, Shah and his team had the opportunity to seek electoral relief after the massive Delhi debacle but failed to turn it into votes. The BJP was up against a united opposition and a caste arithmetic which went completely awry, Bihar was the waterloo both for Shah and Modi.

An emboldened opposition had got together and struck back both in Parliament and outside. The key legislation were stuck in Rajya Sabha.

The trouble was also brewing in the party with the old guards led by LK Advani using the opportunity to strike back. The question now was will Shah be held responsible for the two defeats in Delhi and Bihar. Shah agreed to install state presidents hand picked by chief ministers. The message was clear as the Prime Minister should have the president of his choice similar understanding should be in place for BJP-ruled states.

But denying Shah a full term for having lost a state elections would also have set a wrong precedent in the party. Shah got the all clear after consultations with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The biggest challenge for Shah in this term would be to get back to winning ways. The biggest test of Shah at helm would be Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls in 2017. In politics, nothing succeeds like electoral success and the duo of Shah and Modi know it all too well and hope to revive the winning streak.