BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah who has been the closest confidant andchief strategist of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the new Home Ministerin the Modi's 2.0 cabinet. The appointment makes Amit Shah who masterminded theparty's landslide victory in elections this month the de-facto number 2 of thegovernment.

Amit Shahtakes over the ministry from Rajnath Singh who has been allotted the Ministryof Defence, a move that could be seen as a pared-down posting despite being wellwithin the Big4 grouping of Home, Finance, Defence and External Affairs.

Shah wasamong the 58 ministers who were sworn-in on Thursday along with the Prime Ministerfor the new cabinet.

Shah helpedthe party with huge successful campaign over the past six weeks to raise theBJP's tally to 303 out of 545 in the Lok Sabha which was 282 in 2014 despiteloses in key state elections in December.