Amit Shah will take charge as India's Home minister in Narendra Modi's new cabinet

• The President of Bharatiya Janata Party has taken oath as a minister in the government as Modi got sworn in for a second time.
• Amit Shah spent the first five years of Modi regime tightening his grip over the party and strategising for the 2019 elections.

• Shah will take over as Home Minister, a portfolio that will be responsible to implement the contentious National Register for Citizens

The President of Bharatiya Janata Party has taken oath as a minister in the government as Modi got sworn in for a second time and he will take charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs from Rajnath Singh who will take over as Defence Minister from Nirmala Sitharaman, who has been appointed as the finance minister.

The 55-year old Amit Shah spent the first five years of Modi regime tightening his grip over the party and getting the strategy right for the 2019 elections, and came out with flying colours.

Not surprisingly, he is one of the top three ministers in the Modi cabinet.

Aside from law and order, Shah will push the National Register of Citizens Bill, which proposes to grant citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Parsis, Jains, Sikhs and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan after six years of residence in India, even if they cannot produce the required documents.

The amendment bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in January 2018 but could not be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, which means it is now set to lapse.

Earlier, reports speculated that Shah may take over as Finance Minister and the Sensex clocked a gain of over 300 points. "We know so little about what BJP’s economic priorities are for the next five years," a long-time India watcher and political analyst, Alastair Newton, Co-founder & Director, Alavan Business Advisory, told Business Insider on May 24.

Amit Shah hails from a business family in Gujarat. His father reportedly owned a successful PVC pipe business. Early in his career he is said to have worked as a stock broker in Ahmedabad.

Even now he has investments in blue chip stocks in India. His top investments being ₹2 crore worth of shares in Reliance Industries, ₹1.4 crore in L&T Finance, ₹ 1 crore in TCS. He also has ₹97 lakh in UltraTech, ₹83 lakh in Hindustan Lever and ₹65 lakh in Maruti.

Never before had a non-Congress government returned to power with a thumping majority like the National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP did in 2019 and Amit Shah has been credited for his sharp political acumen and strategic thinking.



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