LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan today held out an olive branch to Ram Kripal Yadav, the leader of the Lalu Prasad Yadav-led RJD, on a day when the latter resigned from all party posts over an issue involving Lok Sabha tickets.
Paswan, whose party recently allied with BJP for the upcoming parliamentary polls after falling out with RJD and Congress, hailed Ram Kripal as a "friend" and also said he was "welcome" to join LJP or NDA if he so chooses.
"Ram Kripal ji a very good leader. He was a very senior leader of RJD... If a person like him was humiliated there, you can well imagine what happened to LJP. He was like a family member (for Lalu Prasad). We were just a party," Paswan said at a press conference here.
Talking to reporters, he claimed his party was given a raw deal by RJD in particular and also by Congress, which had forced him to forge an alliance with BJP.
Lalu Prasad's party was not willing to accommodate LJP in the secular alliance, he added.
To a question on whether he will make an offer to Ram Kripal to join LJP, Paswan said, "He is welcome. Whether he joins LJP or BJP. Since we already have an alliance with BJP, we will welcome him. If Ram Kripal ji comes into NDA, he will be welcomed, but the decision has to be taken by him."
Paswan's son Chirag, who heads LJP's Parliamentary Board and was instrumental in his party finalising the alliance with BJP, said, "If such a behaviour is meted out to Ram Kripal Yadav, it is very bad. He is like a family friend to us. If he joins us, we will welcome it."
The remarks by the LJP leaders came after Ram Kripal, in a jolt to RJD, today quit from all party posts over the denial of a ticket from the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat. He has said that he is keeping his options open.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti has been given the ticket from Patliputra.
Ram Kripal has, meanwhile, refrained from commenting on the possibility of him joining another party or contesting the Lok Sabha elections.
"All options are open. I am mulling these issues. Other decisions will be taken later," he said.