BJP will scale newer heights under Amit Shah's leadership: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday congratulated Amit Shah on being re-elected as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president and said that his grassroot-level work and rich organisational experience will benefit the party immensely.

"Congratulations to Shri @AmitShah on being elected BJP president. I am confident the Party will scale newer heights under his leadership," Prime Minister Modi tweeted.

"Amit Bhai combines grassroot-level work & rich organisational experience which will benefit the Party immensely. @AmitShah," he said in another tweet.

52-year-old Shah was on Sunday formally declared as the BJP president for the second consecutive term. The decision in this regard was announced at the party headquarters here.

Prime Minister Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and the Chief Ministers of the BJP-ruled states proposed Shah's name for the presidential candidature after he filed his nomination papers.

However, BJP veterans Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who are also the members of the party's 'margdarshak mandal', were not present at the party headquarters, thus giving an opportunity to the Opposition to target the saffron party on its internal friction.

Shah's current tenure ended on Saturday and the new term would be his first full-term lasting three years. At present, he was completing the remaining tenure of former party president Rajnath Singh, who had demitted the post after joining the Union Cabinet as Home Minister in May 2014.

Under Shah's leadership, the BJP scaled new heights by coming to power in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. However, the party had to face defeats in Delhi and Bihar assembly elections.