Gujarat Strongman Amit Shah Likely Be Next Finance Minister, Say Sources

Prime Minister's Narendra Modi's close confidant and Gujarat strongman Amit Shah is likely to be appointed as the Finance Minister in Modi 3.0 government, highly placed sources close to government formation told BW. Amit Shah has been the country's home minister since 2019 but the PM is in mood to shuffle some portfolios and Shah is likely to replace Nirmala Sitharaman, who would be given another ministry, sources say.

Shah has been the most trusted lieutenant of Modi since the 1990s when both were the party workers. In the 2024 elections Shah won the Gandhinagar seat with more than 7,4 lakh seats while PM Modi himself won the Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh by a margin of 1.5 lakh votes.

Another senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh is likely to replace Shah as the country's home minister, the sources said. Premium investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED), SFIO (serious fraud investigation office) are likely to be under Shah. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, may also get a key ministerial position, the sources said. Chauhan won MP's Vidisha seat by a margin of 8.21 lakh votes.

Backstory Of Finance Minister

When former BJP leader and finance minister Arun Jaitley was ill, it was he who had requested PM Modi to make Nirmala Sitharaman as the next finance minister after him. The PM granted the wish and kept his work, otherwise Shah was always the PM's choice as the Finance Minister, the sources said.

Shah had handled the portfolio as Finance Minister in Gujarat when Modi was the chief minister in the state.

Shah's close family members are in the financial markets and he has always shown keen interest towards finance and the stock markets, sources in the know said.

Smriti Irani and Anurag Thakur are likely to be dropped as ministers.

Palak Shah

BW Reporters The writer is author of the book: The Market Mafia - Chronicle of India’s High-Tech Stock Market Scandal & The Cabal That Went Scot-Free. Palak has been a journalist in Mumbai for nearly two decades now. He has worked for most premier pink papers including The Economic Times, Business Standard and The Financial Express and The Hindu Business Line. He was drawn to crime reporting at the age of 19 but a few years in the field told him that the fabric of crime had changed and the organised gangs, as Mumbai had witnessed during the eighties, no longer existed. It was business and markets that dominated the scenario. His passion to unravel the intricacies of the ‘white money’ economy led Palak to the world of finance and regulations.