New Delhi: Controversial Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah is set to be named the ruling party’s new national president on Wednesday.

Shah, 49, is expected to be formally named as the new BJP president by the party’s parliamentary board, the highest decision making body in the BJP, at its meeting slated for Wednesday.

The resignation of Rajnath Singh, who led the party to its best electoral performance in the May general elections, will also be accepted by the parliamentary board before naming Shah as his successor. Singh has since become home minister in the Narendra Modi government. The BJP’s constitution does not permit one person to hold two posts.

Shah had to quit as home minister of the Gujarat government led by the then state chief minister Narendra Modi in 2010 due to his alleged involvement in the killings of three Muslims by Gujarat Police.

He has, however, witnessed a meteoric rise in his political career after he was named national general secretary of BJP last year after Modi was named BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 election.

Shah’s graph went up several notches as the general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, as he delivered 73 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats from the state for BJP, including two seats won by one of its regional allies, helping the party win majority on its own.

Shah prevailed as the unanimous choice after several rounds of hectic meetings both in the BJP and its parent organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Initially he was among the three candidates being considered for the post. Shah, however, managed to emerge the front-runner above his co-general secretaries J.P. Nadda and O.P. Mathur as he is seen as a close confidante of Modi, although initially RSS was not comfortable with the idea of two fellow Gujaratis occupying the top posts both in the government and the party.

Interestingly, the RSS, which is credited for meticulously planning the BJP’s return to power after a decade, is in the process of tightening its grip over the party.

Two senior leaders of the RSS, its national spokesperson Ram Madhav and Shiv Prakash, are set to formally join the BJP and be named as national general secretaries by Shah.

The RSS has systematically shifted out all BJP veterans to take control of BJP by first naming Nitin Gadkari and then Rajnath Singh as the BJP president, followed by getting BJP to name Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

The RSS has a history of sending some of its leaders to serve in the party. BJP founders — former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy Lal Krishna Advani — were part of the RSS when they were sent to work in politics in the 1950s.

Modi himself was a full time RSS worker before he was assigned to the BJP in 1985.

According to a BJP insider, RSS is keen on ensuring putting right people at right places and wants to reward those who have worked for the growth of BJP and its pro-Hindu ideology.

While Madhav may become the chief spokesman of the BJP, while Shiv Prakash may be given charge of one of the four states slated to elect their new state legislative assemblies in the last quarter of this year.