Amit Shah to become BJP president this week?

New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) Amit Shah, a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, may be named the next BJP president by the end of this week, a party leader said Thursday.

With assembly elections due in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, the source said Shah had emerged the front-runner vis-a-vis colleagues such as J.P. Nadda and Om Prakash Mathur.

Shah -- if picked for the post -- will succeed Rajnath Singh, now the home minister in the Modi government.

Shah played a key role in the Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory in the Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh where it won 71 of the 80 seats.