Lalu Yadav at Mulayam Singh Yadav's home in Delhi on November 6
Before they come together in a "Janata Parivar", politicians Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Yadav may end up in a different alliance - one involving a wedding.
Lalu Yadav's youngest daughter Raj Lakshmi is reportedly marrying the Samajwadi Party chief's grand-nephew Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who debuted in the May national election and won the Mainpuri parliamentary constituency vacated by his uncle Mulayam Singh.
Tej Pratap appeared to confirm the wedding as he told reporters today, "If the two sides agree then we will form a matrimonial alliance. The marriage is entirely personal and has nothing to do with politics."
Reports suggest an engagement ceremony in December and a wedding in February.
A lot is being read into the match weeks after Lalu Yadav, the chief of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, attended a lunch meeting at Mulayam Singh's Delhi residence, along with several other regional opposition parties with common roots in the erstwhile Janata Party.
After the meeting, the leaders hinted that the "Janata parivar" could come together to form a party in the future and pledged to operate as one bloc in Parliament.
"This unity among us can even turn into the forming of one single party," said Nitish Kumar, Janata Dal United leader and former Bihar chief minister.
Mulayam Singh and Lalu Yadav - both former chief ministers of the politically vital states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar - have been fierce rivals and are seen as aspirants to the prime minister's post.
They were the leading faces of secular, caste-based politics in the 1990s but gradually drifted apart until in 1997, the Samajwadi chief accused Mr Yadav of scuttling his chances at becoming prime minister.
The perceived surge of support for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a series of poll victories appears to have pushed the veterans closer against a common enemy.