Party President Amit Shah has a prime say in significant decisions taken by the Modi government. This was evident by the way Arun Kumar Sharma of the 1987 batch of Gujarat cadre, was appointed at the joint director in the CBI, despite stiff competition from a lot of other names. IPS Rakesh Asthana of the 1984 batch of Gujarat cadre had his eye set on the same post. At present, Asthana is a police commissioner in Surat and is considered to be Modi’s loyalist. At the same time, A K Sharma has the backing of Amit Shah. Until now, he was the special commissioner at Detection of Crime Branch, Ahmedabad and a post that had been created especially for him.