Ranjan Prasad Yadav, LJP vice president and an influential Yadav leader who was once close to Lalu, has written to Paswan asking how could the LJP compromise with its ideology to side with the "perpetrator of jungle raj in Bihar".

In his letter to Paswan on 18 February, he wrote: "If you come together with Lalu, a committed worker like me cannot support you any longer." He was upset about not being kept in the loop.

Ranjan, a three-time Rajya Sabha member, who left the RJD in 2004 to join the LJP, said Bihar should not be taken "back to lantern age".

"I cannot think of siding with Lalu who has made Bihar a barren land. Lalu cannot claim to be a leader of the Yadavs as 38 Yadavs won from non-RJD parties in the last elections," he wrote. Ranjan said Lalu had not done any favour to the Yadavs except his in-laws' family.

The LJP leader had given Paswan a week to reply but he has not got one yet. In a show of strength, he is likely to hold a Yadav Mahasabha in Patna.