Senior JD(U) leaders, including former chief minister Nitish Kumar and chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, hold the party meeting in Patna on Monday. Telegraph picture

Patna, June 2: Former chief minister Nitish Kumar today said communal polarisation helped the BJP and became the sole reason for the party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections during a review meeting of the JD(U).

At the meeting held at 1 Aney Marg, where Nitish still resides, he admitted that the BJP’s hi-tech campaign was very effective, which JD(U) could not emulate. He instructed that in the coming Assembly elections, the party would beat BJP in its own style.

“For the 2015 Assembly elections, Nitishji has asked us to ensure that the JD(U) campaign is more hi-tech so that we could reach maximum number of people. He stressed that the party has to answer the BJP in its own language. Nitishji also admitted that communal polarisation helped the BJP to win the Lok Sabha elections. But from now, he has instructed to make the party stronger at block and panchayat level,” said a senior JD (U) leader who was present in the meeting on the request of anonymity.

The meeting was attended by most of the Lok Sabha candidates who faced defeat in their respective Lok Sabha constituencies.

JD(U) national president Sharad Yadav was not present in the meeting, which was called to discuss the reasons and other issues related to the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. Nitish also instructed that all the Lok Sabha candidates, who lost the polls, should start the preparations in their respective constituencies.

The BJP has begun the preparations and has already started the exercise to select party nominees for the Assembly elections. The party has directed the mandals (the lowest unit in the party hierarchy) to select the names of probable candidates, which would be scrutinised by the district units. The BJP has been holding meetings since May 28 to review the performance of leaders.

After attending the meeting, Shahid Ali Khan, who contested the election from the Sheohar Lok Sabha seat, said: “The main agenda of today’s meeting was to discuss the issues related to the reasons of defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and the party’s future strategy. We have been instructed to start the preparations for the 2015 Assembly elections.”

Another round of meeting has been called on Tuesday and would be headed by JD(U) state unit president Bashishtha Narayan Singh. “We have called a review meeting today in which our Lok Sabha candidates were invited and the process of review meetings would continue. Today, we mainly discussed about the future strategies.”