In Ranchi, BJP Leaders Attend Amit Shah's Five-Point Lecture

Ranchi: New BJP president Amit Shah, now touring election-bound states, has reportedly been doing some plain speaking with top local party leaders.

In Jharkhand, where elections are due in December, he reportedly gathered a core group of 10 leaders, that included a former chief minister, and gave them a five-point lecture.  

In party circles it is being called Amit Shah ki Paathshala or Amit Shah's classroom. Those who attended are reportedly wondering whether they have been handed a veiled threat or then been made privy to Mr Shah's mantra for success in elections.

Either way, the BJP chief made it clear in that session in capital city Ranchi that these are the new rules in the BJP. They are:

1) Mr Shah made it clear that the party will project none of those present as the Chief Ministerial candidate. He reportedly told the leaders that if they had any doubts on that score, they could double check with him.

2) The BJP chief also made it clear that even if the party wins a majority in the Jharkhand assembly, the chief minister will not be selected by the new legislators, but by the party's central leadership, mainly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he.

3) He emphasised that in such a situation, it would not really matter which leader ensured that a larger number of his or her supporters won elections. It would serve each of them best to ensure that every BJP candidate wins, he said. 

4) Mr Shah has reportedly told the top state leaders that a five-member committee must be set up for fund-raising and that two or more members of the committee should approach industrialists for party funding, never alone.

5) Importantly, in a bid to curtail in-fighting, the BJP chief said top leaders must bury their differences and work together for party.