In stature, he appears to be no less than the Prime Minister of India, barring the protocol and level of security. He carries a distinct air of arrogance around him, but the way he has galvanised the party into action speaks volumes of the charisma in the man. Amit Shah, the BJP national president, on whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi leans so heavily, displayed all of this on his arrival in the city on a two-day tour on Saturday.
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There were broadly two major takeaways from his visit. BJP will target to win 406 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and there is no immediate move to replace Chandigarh party president Sanjay Tandon or Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal.
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Photos By: Life in Chandigarh
The profusion of enthusiasm in the party cadres, especially the youth, was to be seen to be believed. A vast majority of them may have just got a distant glimpse of their leader, after preparing and waiting for hours on end, but that was enough for them to feel elated.
“I am tired to the bone,” remarked a youth leader, sweating profusely, as Shah’s heavily guarded cavalcade, piloted and escorted by scores of motorcyclists, reached Kamlam, the renovated Chandigarh headquarters of the party. “But it was worth spending the time to be near our leader and listening to him,” he added.
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All along the way from the Chandigarh International Airport, where he was received among others by Chandigarh leaders Sanjay Tandon, Member of Parliament Kirron Kher, Mayor Asha Kumari and former MP Satya Pal Jain, to the party headquarters, Amit Shah, being driven in a Porsche Cayenne-S, stopped at pre-planned intersections in Chandigarh to acknowledge the greeting of the party workers and leaders, who gathered in strength.
The renovated Kamlam in Sector 33, he inaugurated, projects the corporate image of the party. He also opened a large conference hall and library in the premises.
After a closed door meeting with prominent leaders, he addressed a “Meet the Press” programme at the Chandigarh Press Club in Sector 27, leaving the journalists speechless and smarting from some of his dismissive replies, before stopping for lunch and a meeting with select Media editors at BJP state president Sanjay Tandon’s residence in Sector 18.
A couple of internal meetings at UT Guest House followed, after which he held discussions at an intellectuals’ meet organised by the intellectual cell of the party at Law Bhawan in Sector 37.
Shah is scheduled to leave on Sunday.
