Patna: After Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS), the Lalu Prasad-led RJD is now trying hard to rope in the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP).

But there's a catch.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, son of the jailed RJD boss, has given an open offer to LJP leaders to join an anti-NDA front. But the offer, he said, isn't open to LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and his family members.

Sources in the RJD said a few prominent leaders of the LJP, including Khagaria MP Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser, are in touch with Tejashwi and waiting for the "right opportunity" to switch sides to the RJD.

"As you know, a plan to form an anti-BJP front ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election has already begun and we are appealing to like-minded political parties to join our front," Tejashwi told The Telegraph.

"In that context, I am appealing to the LJP to join the camp of the RJD the way Manjhi ji did. It is an open invitation to LJP leaders to join us. Except the family members of Ram Vilas Paswan, all are welcome to our party," he added.

Political parties in Bihar have already started making their calculations along caste lines in the run-up to the next general elections, scheduled for summer next year. Mahadalit leader Manjhi has joined the RJD camp and the tie-up has apparently yielded dividends with Lalu Prasad's party increasing its victory margin in the bypoll to the Jehanabad Assembly seat, whose electorate comprises a sizeable chunk from the community.

The addition of Paswan votes - the community accounts for six per cent of the total population of the state - would give a boost to the RJD, which already commands the support of the Yadavs and Muslims - which translates into around 30-32 per cent of the vote bank.

RJD leaders reason that after Nitish switched sides to the BJP, he has lost the Muslim vote. In the coming elections, Muslims are unlikely to support the JDU given its flip-flops. The recent bypoll results - the RJD won the Araria Lok Sabha seat apart from the Jehanabad Assembly segment - has sounded off the alarm in the NDA, said an RJD source. The RJD's understanding is that in the given scenario, a Muslim candidate fielded by the NDA is unlikely to get the vote of the community.

Tejashwi denied having any meeting with any LJP leader. "I am once again saying that they are welcome and I know that even Paswanji is not feeling comfortable but I am sorry to say that we will not accept him," he said.

Interestingly, Tejashwi has already sent out an open invitation to Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, the national president of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), another NDA ally. Tejashwi went on to predict that Kushwaha will soon join the RJD; the RLSP chief has, however, dismissed the claim.

A political observer said if the combination of the RJD, HAMS, LJP, RLSP and Congress becomes a reality in Bihar, it could pose a tough challenge for the NDA.

LJP spokesperson Ashraf Ansari, however, asserted that the party is intact and none of their leaders are going to join the RJD front.

"These are just rumours planted by Opposition parties. No LJP leader is going to join the camp of the RJD. The NDA is intact under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Ansari said.