BJP appoints Amit Shah as new president

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's close aide and general secretary Amit Shah will take over as the party's new president from previous incumbent and now Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Announcing the party's decision, Rajnath Singh said, "The BJP Parliamentary Board approves the appointment of Amit Shah as the BJP National President."

He (Amit Shah) has all the capabilities and management skills required for the strengthening of organization," Rajnath added.

After the announcement, Shah took the blessing of party patriarch L.K. Advani, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other senior leaders, including Murli Manohar Joshi, M.Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Ananth Kumar.

Sweets were also offered to Shah, who as the campaign in charge in Uttar Pradesh, secured 77 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats that was up for grabs from that state.

Earlier, the BJP Parliamentary Board met, where Rajnath Singh formally submitted his resignation from the post. His resignation was accepted in the meeting.

Addressing the media before formally announcing the appointment of Shah as the next BJP president, Rajnath Singh recalled the period when he was made the party president at the beginning of last year in circumstances that were not pleasant for the party.

He recalled how then party president Nitin Gadkari had to resign over allegations of financial impropriety that later proved to be unfounded and baseless.

He said that at the time of his taking over, the party had experienced a churning not of its choosing, and in the year-and-a-half since then, everyone had seen how the BJP had performed and where it had reached.

He said that this landmark achievement of becoming the single largest majority party after three decades would not have been possible without the guidance and leadership of veteran leaders like former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee or veteran leader and former union home minister L.K. Advani.

He also mentioned the significant role played by Prime Minister Modi in taking the BJP towards its landmark win in the 2014 general elections.