This Article is From Feb 10, 2015

BJP's Delhi Defeat Casts a Shadow on a Wedding in Ahmedabad

BJP's Delhi Defeat Casts a Shadow on a Wedding in Ahmedabad

BJP chief Amit Shah at his son Jay Shah's wedding.

Ahmedabad:

A musical band called to play at the wedding of Jay Shah, BJP chief Amit Shah's son, left without striking a note. And there were no firecrackers when the baraat, or groom's party, arrived at the YMCA Club in Ahmedabad, the venue of the wedding.

With the portent of a BJP rout coming early in the day, Mr Shah, 50, looked visibly upset as he arrived with the baraat around 11.30 a.m. He chose not to speak to journalists waiting at the gate of the club and drove straight in.

The BJP's master strategist is credited with scripting some spectacular electoral successes in the last year for his party, starting with the national elections in May. The BJP has won most state elections in recent months based on canny strategy and micromanagement by Mr Shah.

The first major setback to the BJP in months came on a day Mr Shah would have wanted only good tidings. But news from Delhi only got worse for the BJP chief with every passing hour. Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party ended up winning 67 of Delhi's 70 seats, way past even the most generous exit poll prediction.

The BJP, which had scored a perfect seven out of seven Lok Sabha seats in the capital only nine months ago, has won a humiliating three assembly seats in Delhi today.

The wedding in Ahmedabad was a close-knit affair; around 1000 people attended, including corporate bigwigs like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani and several senior BJP leaders and central ministers like Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal.

Those who attended the traditional Gujarati wedding, said it was not a lavish event. Mr Shah has planned two reception parties, one in Ahmedabad on Thursday and another in Delhi on Sunday.

Jay Shah, who is the secretary of the Gujarat cricket association, has married his friend from the days at Nirma university in Ahmedabad.

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