Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav has deputed Vice President Kiranmoy Nanda to visit Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in Ranchi on Monday, where he has been imprisoned in a fodder scam case, The Economic Times reported on Saturday. Nanda will also meet Lalu Yadav’s son Tejashwi Yadav in Patna.

Nanda told The Economic Times that he would visit Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav to urge for Opposition unity against the Bharatiya Janata Party . “I will carry a larger message of Opposition unity to Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav on the behalf of Akhilesh Yadav,” he said.

The Samajwadi Party won the Lok Sabha bye-elections in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath’s constituency of Gorakhpur, and in Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s Phulpur seat on March 14. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party supported Samajwadi Party candidates for the polls. After the victories, Akhilesh Yadav met Mayawati in Lucknow.

Though Mayawati had said that the BSP’s support to the SP was not an alliance, she added that she backed Akhilesh Yadav’s party to teach the BJP a “lesson”.