Hajipur: RJD chief Lalu Prasad and JD(U) senior leader Nitish Kumar at a by-election rally in Hajipur on Monday.
In Bihar today, Lalu Prasad Yadav not only joined Nitish Kumar, for years his arch political rival, on stage, but also advised Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to do the same.
He held up the BJP bogie and suggested that the cause of defeating that party was well worth burying the hatchet with the most bitter foe.
"Our alliance has sent a good message to everyone," he said at a public rally in Hajipur of his new partnership with Nitish Kumar, who he referred to as his younger brother. And added, "I appeal to Mulayam Singh and Mayawati to enter a maha-alliance too."
Both Nitish Kumar and he attacked the BJP.
"Good days were promised, but where are the good days? People are still waiting. Good days haven't come for people, but have come for some BJP members. The government will not reduce inflation, they will only save their seats," Mr Kumar said at the rally.
Much like Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav in Bihar, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati have been at daggers drawn in UP for most part of the last two decades, fighting and besting each other by turns in elections.
In a massive sweep of these big states in the general elections this time, the BJP pushed the local rivals to the fringes. In Bihar, Lalu's RJD managed just four seats and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) only two.
The crushing defeat impelled the coming together of Nitish and Lalu to avoid a repeat in by-elections being held this month to 10 Assembly seats. The two former chief ministers are also testing ground for state elections to be held in Bihar next year.
Uttar Pradesh votes only in 2017 for a new assembly. But the BJP has made it clear that it will work hard in the crucial state to consolidate on its splendid performance of May this year.
In the national elections, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party could win just five seats and Mayawati none at all, as the BJP swept the state winning 71 of 80 seats.