A BJP leader recently said there was a time when it was believed that nobody understood Uttar Pradesh better than former Chief Minister and party veteran Kalyan Singh, but now it is a man from Gujarat who has his finger on the state's pulse.

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A former minister in the erstwhile Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, Amit Shah's journey of familiarising himself with UP's caste-ridden political atmosphere began before the Lok Sabha elections, when he was made the state's in-charge. The 52-year-old BJP President went on to drop the common Gujarati suffix 'bhai', instead opting for the UP-wallah's way of addressing someone as 'bhaiyya', at least in the Delhi circles.

Today, several in the government and in BJP are of the opinion that it is Shah, 14 years younger to Modi, who is now the number 2 in the current regime, and not Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the former party president.

Though Shah's three years as BJP Chief will be completed in July, he has been the interface between government and the party ever since Modi shifted to the the Prime Minister's official residence in May, 2014. If Modi wanted close coordination between his government and the party, Shah ensured that the instructions were carried out to the tee on the ground.

The Modi-Shah duo introduced a new work culture in the government and the party, taking major decisions with utmost discretion, strengthening the organisation, expanding the party's footprint to capture political space outside its bastions, cashing in on government initiatives to acquire new sections of voters, and keeping their teams on their toes.

When the BJP leaders are asked to describe Shah, three attributes are often repeated —micro-manager, bold, and taskmaster. "He is so hard-working and focussed on strategy. Whether it is an electoral defeat or victory, he immediately gets down to work and does that tirelessly," BJP General Secretary Bhupendra Yadav says.

After every victory, Shah cautions his party members against complacence, just as he did while addressing the BJP National Executive meet held in Bhubaneswar last month, after an overwhelming victory in UP.

Keeping his nose to the grindstone, Shah crafted the BJP's strategy to wrest the state, which was being ruled by state parties, SP or BSP, for the last over 14 years. The dust had barely settled when he began his 95-day country-wide tour. With an eye on 2019, he took the lead in working on the BJP's strategy to make inroads in states where the party has failed to secure a foothold.

Shah has woven his party's strategy around Modi, the protagonist of the BJP campaign. Since 2014, with an aggressiveness to capture power, the party has won elections in nine states — UP, Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Assam, Goa, Manipur, and Jammu and Kashmir (in alliance with the PDP), but lost Bihar, Delhi, and Punjab. It, however, managed to increase its vote share in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, where it also won its first-ever seat in the Assembly. The recent victories have only strengthened Shah's reputation as a master strategist.

After raising his party's membership to 11 crore, Shah also planned a training programme for the new recruits. Party leader R Balashankar recalls how Shah himself called up all the state party chiefs and prabharis (in-charge), and directed them to take the programme seriously.

The second-most powerful man in Delhi has indicated that he is not keen on returning to Gujarat. What will be his next role is a question that only time can answer.