Rahul Gandhi among those who attend Paswan's Iftar party

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several leaders from Congress and UPA allies attended the Iftar party organised by LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan today.

Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, NC chief Farooq Abdullah, RLD chief Ajit Singh, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, NCP's Supriya Sule, DMK's Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi and senior Congress leaders Janardan Dwivedi and Motilal Vora were also present.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was not present. Sources close to Paswan said the RJD chief was in Patna.

A surprise attendance was that of Paswan's arch rival in Bihar politics Sharad Yadav who is also the convenor of NDA.

Gandhi, who spent almost an hour at the Iftar party, chatted freely with leaders, including Paswan, his brother and former MP Ramchandra Paswan, Dikshit and others.

Ramchandra Paswan later told PTI that he urged Rahul Gandhi to fight the next general elections in Bihar under a joint allinance of Congress-RJD-LJP to defeat NDA.

He said he told Gandhi that all the three parties suffered losses by fighting separately in the last Lok Sabha election, which should not be repeated in 2014.

Gandhi was also seen chatting with the JD-U chief. Sharad Yadav, however, said they were talking about the water issue and non-irrigation of large chunks of land in the country.