Patna: After a gap of 10 months, chief minister Nitish Kumar met " bada bhai" Lalu Prasad at the wedding of the RJD leader's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav on Saturday evening.

In all these 10 months, since July 26 when Nitish broke away from the Grand Alliance with the RJD and Congress to rejoin hands with the BJP, Lalu and his family members have attacked the chief minister on a daily basis.

However, political rivalry took a backseat, even if for a fleeting 20 minutes, when Nitish visited the Veterinary Ground to offer his blessings to Tej Pratap and Aishwarya Rai, the granddaughter of former chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai.

Not only Lalu, even his younger son and leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who calls Nitish chacha and attacks him on a daily basis, shared the sofa with the chief minister.

As soon as Nitish reached the stage, Lalu, who is out on parole from judicial custody in Jharkhand for three days and is not keeping well, got up and shook hands. Nitish smiled, but Lalu's face was inscrutable.

Nitish occupied a sofa along with Lalu's wife Rabri Devi and spoke to her for some time. Nitish then beckoned to Lalu's eldest daughter Misa Bharti to come and sit between him and Rabri. Misa obliged, smiling.

Then it was the turn of Rohini, the second daughter of Lalu and Rabri to share the sofa for a photo-op. All seven daughters paid their respect by touching Nitish's feet.

Nitish recalled regularly seeing Lalu's daughters when they were children and said it was after a long time that he was meeting all of them.

Nitish also met the bride's father, former RJD minister Chandrika Rai.

Soon after, Tej Pratap and Aishwarya walked on to the stage and were blessed by Nitish, who handed over a bouquet of red roses to them. He was followed by LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan.

Nitish stayed at the venue for around 20 minutes.

Some 40,000 people attended the wedding. Among the VIP guests present were former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple.