Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar attending the wedding of Tej Pratap Yadav was not the only surprise from the "rival" camp for Lalu Prasad; Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah also conveyed their wishes to the RJD chief for his elder son's marriage.

Modi wrote a letter to Lalu, and Shah called him up and cited the Karnataka Assembly election as the reason for not attending the wedding in Patna.

"Lalu ji received the letter from Prime Minister Modi on the day of the wedding (Saturday)," a senior RJD leader also close to Lalu's family told The Telegraph on Monday. "The letter is addressed to Laluji, in which the PM has conveyed his best wishes to Tej Pratap Yadav ji and Aishwarya Rai. In the letter, the PM has also prayed for a happy married life for the couple."

Lalu's family has sent invitation cards to all Union ministers, but only Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha turned up at the wedding. The invitation cards were also sent to Modi and Shah.

Modi's one-page letter was typed in Hindi and had his signature. On the day of the wedding, the Prime Minister was in Nepal and there was speculation that he may visit Lalu's son's wedding while returning to Delhi.

The last time Lalu had met Modi was on January 5 last year in Patna, when the Prime Minister had visited Patna for the Prakash Utsav celebrations of Sikh Guru Gobind Singh. At that time, Lalu's RJD was part of the Bihar government. Before that, Lalu had met Modi during the wedding of the RJD chief's youngest daughter, Raj Lakshmi, in February 2015.

BJP national president Amit Shah also called up Lalu on Sunday to convey his greetings.

"Amit Shah told Lalu ji that he could not make it to the wedding because of the Assembly election in Karnataka," said the senior RJD leader. "There was no political talk between the two leaders. Even Rahul Gandhi called up Laluji and cited similar reasons for not attending the wedding. Rahul ji also passed on Sonia Gandhiji's blessings to the newlywed couple."