The RJD on Thursday decided to put in place a “well-structured” mechanism to counter chief minister Nitish Kumar’s pursuit to rope in 16 per cent of the minority votes in the state.

The party, believed to have Yadavs and Muslims as its “core strength”, has constituted eight teams — all headed by the minority leaders — to move around among the minority settlements all across the state and aware them how “Lalu was a true saviour of the Muslims and Nitish an opportunist doing everything for the Muslim votes”.

The RJD legislature party leader, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, and its minority cell president MAA Fatimi said the party had divided the state into eight zones covering all its 38 districts and was in the process of putting in place the eight teams to carry out “awareness campaign”.

It is widely believed that Nitish dumped his 17-year-old ally, the BJP, when the latter projected Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as the frontrunner for its prime ministerial candidate in the next year’s general elections hoping to get the support of the largest minority community.

“He (Nitish) cannot fool the Muslims after breaking bread for 17 long years with the communal BJP. Our leader, Lalu Prasad, all through his life stood for the cause of the Muslims and has fought for their rights,” Siddiqui said.