Come August 5 and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah will mark a significant milestone in his political career by becoming the longest-serving Home Minister at the Centre, beating the earlier record held by BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani.
Having held the post for six years and 64 days, Shah will earn this rare distinction on August 5, a momentous day when he announced the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution six years ago, revoking special status for Jammu and Kashmir and turning J&K and Ladakh into two separate union territories.
Besides Advani, Congress' Govind Ballabh Pant is the only leader to have held the post of Home Minister for a little over six years. Rajnath Singh, the Home Minister in the Modi 1.0 regime, spent five years at the North Block office.
Having taken over as Home Minister during the second term of the Modi government in 2019, Shah's tenure has been marked with decisions such as the Article 370 abrogation, conduct of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and a decisive battle against Naxalism in the country.
Shah also piloted the rollout of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023 and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam 2023, which replaced the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act.
Shah also played a key role in the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that saw him emerge as among the most powerful BJP voices in Parliament.
Prior to his appointment as a minister in the Modi Cabinet, Shah tenure as the BJP's national president saw the party expand its electoral footprint in the Northeast, winning in Assam and Tripura, and consolidating its sway in the Hindi heartland, with the BJP forming a government in Uttar Pradesh after 15 years in 2017.
In 2019, with the BJP winning 303 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, Shah replaced Rajnath Singh as the country's Home Minister.
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