Patna:
With Lalu Prasad out on bail, there is a buzz that a renewal of his alliance with the Congress in Bihar for general elections 2014, could be on the cards.
Mr Yadav said on Thursday, "Yes, we will get into an alliance with the Congress... what they will decide is their right. However, we will reconcile with them."
In the Congress-led UPA government of 2004, Mr Yadav was the Railway Minister. But in 2009, the Congress fought Lok Sabha elections alone in Bihar after it failed to reach an agreement on seat-sharing with Mr Yadav.
In an indication that the Congress could be warming up again to the RJD chief, party chief Sonia Gandhi called Mr Yadav to greet him after he was released on bail from a Jharkhand jail on Monday.
Bihar Congress chief Ashok Chowdhary met party Vice President Rahul Gandhi today and met with Mrs Gandhi yesterday, and discussed the options that the Congress has in Bihar.
There is Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, recently divorced from the BJP. Several senior Congress leaders are said to prefer aligning with the Janata Dal (United) because of Mr Kumar's clean image.
But JD(U) president Sharad Yadav has made no bones about his opposition to such an alliance. And after the Congress' debacle in the recently held assembly polls, Mr Kumar, too, appeared to develop cold feet over partnering with the Congress.
Lalu Prasad was convicted in September in a fodder scam case and at a time when the Congress is attempting to take credit for rushing the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill through Parliament, it might find it difficult to explain a partnership with the RJD.
But the Bihar Congress reportedly strongly favours a tie-up with the RJD - in 2004, when they fought elections together, they won 29 of Bihar's 40 seats, the RJD bagging 22 and another partner Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP, three.
In 2009, fighting separately, the RJD won four, the Congress, the LJP none.