By“The election in western Uttar Pradesh is an election for honour, for seeking revenge for the insult, and for teaching a lesson to those who committed injustice”- Amit ShahThat remark by BJP leader incharge of UP Amit Shah may have earned him an FIR for hate speech, but insiders say the comment was well thought through and in line with the party’s broader strategy to consolidate the hard line Hindu votes.Senior party leaders Mirror spoke to said Shah’s strategy was simple: Narendra Modi will seek votes on a governanceand-development agenda while, behind the scenes, Shah will quietly invoke Hindu pride and try to consolidate the hard-line votes. Insiders said the unassuming Shah will, in the days to come, step up this rhetoric equating nationalism with Hinduism in an attempt to maximise the gains in Uttar Pradesh, where the party has gotten a second wind after a 15-year slump.In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP got just 10 of the 80 UP’s seats. Shah’s aim is to at least double that tally by increasing the party’s 18 per cent vote share in the country’s most significant state.From being a state-level secondrung leader, Shah has now emerged as the second most important man in the BJP. He calls the shots in the current scheme of things. As a senior BJP leader put it, “Amit Shah is the BJP’s Ahmed Patel.”Here are some of things Shah has done in the recent weeks: He finalised that Modi will contest from Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi, even if it meant trampling on a leader as senior as Murli Manohar Joshi. Shah has also been stitching up alliances with regional parties. For instance, it was he who sealed the BJP’s alliance with the chauvinistic and reactionary PMK in TN. Shah used a controversial Gujarat-based doctor to bring PMK chief P Ramadoss and his son Anbumani – both doctors – into the BJP fold.And when it comes to UP, Modi has openly acknowledged Shah’s role in crushing potentially troublesome regional leaders within the party. While it was known that Modi always had a soft corner for Shah, these elections have seen the latter take national centre-stage in party affairs.Shah was just a small-time state leader till 1997, when Modi lobbied for him and got him an assembly ticket in a by-election. Despite intense infighting and every leader in Ahmedabad working against him, Shah carved out an impressive victory for himself. Modi saw the spark and began to groom him. Now, Shah’s niche is election management.Despite his against-the-wall win in that 1997 bypoll, Shah was never given an opportunity to lead an organisation in Gujarat in the 1990s. Ahmedabad had a host of BJP leaders and there was no space for the introverted stockbroker with no oratory skills. It was also the time when popular leaders like Ashok Bhatt, Harin Pathak, Haren Pandya, Surendra Patel, Bimal Shah, Bharat Barot and Pradeepsinh Jadeja were fighting for attention. Shah thus smartly distanced himself from the battle for prominence in this crowd.Instead, he focused on the co-operative sector and strategically helped the party establish itself in what was till then virgin territory for the BJP. In fact, till he was arrested in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, Shah was tirelessly working to take over the National Dairy Development Board, which controls the Amul co-operative.Insiders also speak about his tendency to turn even tricky situations in his favour. After the Supreme Court granted him bail in the Sohrabuddin case on the condition that he will not step into Gujarat, Shah modelled himself into a national backroom leader. An outsider to Delhi, his rise has been aided by his close friend S Gurumurthy, who has immensely helped him with advice and support.Shah’s ruthlessness was again in evidence in UP, where he has unilaterally decided on candidates. State party leader Lalji Tandon even insists that Shah has single-handedly managed to bring sections of the Dalit vote to the BJP fold. Instead of ‘Jai Bhim, Jai Bharat’, Dalits in Eastern UP have embraced Shah’s ‘Jai Modi, Jai Bharat’ slogan, said Tandon. From insisting that Murli Manohar Joshi vacate his Varanasi seat for Modi to tactfully introducing hard-line Hindutva in pockets of the state, Shah is promising Modi handsome returns from UP.So much so that Modi, who is considered to be a very cautious politician, trusts Shah unconditionally thanks to his reputation as a strategist who delivers rich electoral dividends.Insiders say Modi knows that but for Shah he would not have bagged 126 of the 182 assembly seats in Gujarat in 2002. They said the dynamics of the duo has been clear ever since: Modi will be the face, Shah the brain. Another example they highlight to prove Shah’s acumen is the fact that he has won four times from Sarkhej, which houses India’s biggest Muslim ghetto Juhapura. In fact, Shah’s victory margin has always been higher than even Modi’s, though he hardly is able to devote time to his constituency.Critics, on the other hand, point to what they claim are Shah’s underhand tactics. Shankersinh Vaghela, who crossed over to the Congress from the BJP, has seen Shah from his early days when he enrolled in the local RSS shakha. Vaghela says Shah manipulated the delimitation exercise in Gujarat to favour the BJP.A study by sociologist Vidyut Joshi adds that the delimitation in Gujarat changed the social composition in 60 of the 182 assembly seats. It is no wonder then that Shah is a fan of Chanakya. Photos of Chanakya and Adi Sankara adorn his office and residences in Gujarat. Insiders say Shah will not be too bothered about the FIR filed on Sunday. Instead, the soft-spoken and reticent strategist will already be planning his next move.For, a handsome win for Modi will only mean handsome rewards for Shah. With that in mind, Shah will go back to fine-tuning his strategies to manage the 1.25 lakh polling booths in UP. He knows a big win in UP will go a long way in putting Modi in power, and in turn secure an even bigger role for himself.