Patna, April 24: Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi were not invited for the tilak (pre-wedding) ceremony of the daughter of Rabri's brother Sadhu Yadav today.

Sadhu's daughter Isha Yadav is marrying Rahul Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's niece Sheela Yadav. Neither Lalu nor Rabri visited Etawah where the tilak was organised. Sadhu was very close to the family when Lalu and Rabri were in power in Bihar. The relationship soured after the RJD lost power in 2005; since then Sadhu has been vocal against his brother-in-law.

Asked why he didn't attend the tilak of his brother-in-law's daughter, Lalu told The Telegraph: "He has not invited me, so how can I attend? For many years now, he is not on talking terms with me and we hardly interact. My blessing is there with her (Isha). I pray for her happiness and good health. God bless her."

A Bihar-based SP leader said Rahul and Isha were students at Amity University in Noida and that Rahul's mother, Sheela, is the elder sister of Badaun MP Dharmendra Yadav.

Rahul and Isha got engaged at a city hotel in New Delhi on February 26; Lalu and Rabri were not invited there either. The wedding will be held in New Delhi on April 28. Lalu said that as Sadhu had not invited him for the tilak, there was no chance of attending the wedding.

For 15 years, Sadhu had enjoyed immense power along with brother Subhash Yadav. Lalu had sent Sadhu to Bihar Legislative Council in 1996 and Sadhu was elected as a member of Parliament in 2004. Sadhu had deserted Lalu in 2009 after the RJD chief did not give him the Lok Sabha ticket from Bettiah. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Sadhu had announced that he would fight against sister Rabri from Saran as an Independent but later filed the nomination from Maharajganj before withdrawing from there as well.

He is the second one in the RJD family to have ties with Mulayam. Lalu's youngest daughter, Raj Laxmi, is married to Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap, the SP chief's grand-nephew.