Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday asked party functionaries attending the ongoing training session of JDU workers to jump into the election fray and give their best in all the 243 Assembly seats.

Nitish convened a closed-door meeting with leaders of the JDU trader cell, along with the district in-charge of the party across the state.

The meeting was divided into two sessions.

In the first session (11am to 2pm), participants were given election tips from none other than Prashant Kishor, who had handled Narendra Modi's campaign last general election.

Though Nitish was present in both the sessions, he chose to address the gathering at his 7 Circular Road residence in the second session (3pm to 4pm).

On what Nitish instructed in the meeting, a JDU functionary said: "Nitishji asked us to go among the people and visit the blocks and panchayats to make them aware of the good things done by him ever since he has been ruling the state. He has also instructed not to focus on comments of Opposition leaders and only stress upon the achievements of the government."

In his 45-minute speech to the cadres, Nitish instructed them to convince the people at the grassroots regarding the "hand shake" with the RJD, against whom he had got the mandate in 2005 and 2010.

He also instructed to work hard in those places where the RJD would field their candidates, as the party would contest in alliance.

"Our job also includes to convince people across all sections to justify our leader's stand that he shook hands with Lalu to keep communal forces away from the state. We have also been asked to convince people that he would never compromise on the issue of law and order even though he was contesting elections in alliance with the RJD, which was infamous for collapsed law and order," said another JDU functionary, who was present in the meeting.

When the meeting got over at 4pm, organisational in-charge of Bettiah Assembly seat and state general secretary of JDU, Dinesh Kumar Gupta, said: "Our party is all set to contest the election and ready to defeat the communal forces in all circumstances. Nitishji has developed the state and he will become the chief minister once again."