Out of jail, Amit Shah lords over Naranpura

He may be one of Gujarat's most controversial figures,facing the charge of plotting the murder of alleged gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikhin a fake police encounter, but Chief Minister Narendra Modi's Man Friday AmitShah is more loved than feared in Naranpur.
The portly Shah, a key strategist in 'Team Modi', is locked with Congress'Jeetu Bhai Patel, who crossed over from BJP weeks ahead of the assemblyelections, in an electoral battle he is expected to win hands down in this BJPbastion.
Though there are 23 candidates vying for the Naranpura assembly seat, it is astraight contest between Shah and Patel, belonging to the two dominantcommunities in the constituency with an electorate of little over 2.13 lakh.
Shah was allowed to enter Gujarat this September by the the Supreme Court,nearly two years after his arrest on July 25, 2010, when he was charged withthe murder, extortion, kidnapping besides five other sections of IPC inconnection with the killing of Sheikh in an allegedly fake encounter andsubsequently eliminating his wife Kausar Bi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati.
Sheikh allegedly ran an extortion racket with the help of senior policeofficers and four IPS officers including D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, AbhayChudasama and Dinesh M N, apart from eight other officers of lesser rank areunder arrest in the case.
The gory details of these extra-judicial killings may not give a good accountof Shah as a politician, but for an overwhelming majority of voters in thisurban, middle and high-middle class locality of Ahmedabad city, Shah is regardedas a "saviour".

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