'Party Time Over' As Amit Shah, Tough Boss, Enters Parliament

New Delhi: You know when BJP chief Amit Shah is at the party headquarters, the legend goes. From party members to ministers, everyone is on his toes. Now, say BJP leaders, that will happen in the Rajya Sabha too, with Amit Shah set to make his debut as a member of the Upper House of Parliament.

"This means party time is over for all BJP MPs," senior leader Kailash Vijaywargiya told NDTV, adding, "They will have to mind themselves now." Mr Vijaywargiya, who is a BJP general secretary admitted Mr Shah is a strict boss who brooks no indiscipline.  In the past he has locked out lawmakers who arrived late for the weekly party meeting held when parliament is in session.

Last week, he asked for written explanations from BJP members of the Rajya Sabha, including ministers, who bunked a vote on an important bill, allowing the opposition to make changes to it in acute embarrassment for the government.  Now, he will be in the house and absenteeism in the treasury benches is expected to dramatically decrease.

The 52-year-old BJP chief was elected to Parliament on Tuesday, early morning Wednesday really, after a bitterly fought battle between his party and the Congress. While Mr Shah's own election was a breeze, he tried his best to prevent the re-election of senior Congress leader and old rival Ahmed Patel. Mr Patel just about scraped through, aided by an Election Commission intervention that the BJP has protested against.

The two leaders, both known as the master political strategists in their own parties will now sit across each other in the Upper House and sparks are expected to fly.

"I don't know if it will be awkward or not...You should ask them," said Ahmed Patel, back in the Rajya Sabha for a fifth term. This week's election was "very, very bitter," Mr Patel said and then added, "I am a small fry, I don't know why they did all this."

Ahmed Patel won the prestige battle amid absolute disarray in the Gujarat unit of the Congress, with legislators deserting the party days before the election and cross-voting. In the end he made it with the help of friends from other parties.

The Ahmed Patel, Amit Shah rivalry is seen to go back to the time when Mr Shah was arrested in the Sohrabuddin case by the CBI and sent to prison. The case crumbled later. The BJP has accused the Congress, then in power at the Centre of misusing the central agency to target Mr Shah, who is said to hold Mr Patel, the powerful political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, responsible.