Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad and Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan Wednesday visited ailing Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu at a hospital here and wished him speedy recovery.

“Jyoti Basu is a great leader. He is not only a great leader of West Bengal but of the whole nation. It was his greatness that he turned down the post of prime minister after the United Front proposed his name in 1996. I wish and pray to God that he gets well soon,” said Lalu, who was also a prominent leader of the United Front.

Former Union minister Paswan said: “A hundred years from now, those who have become prime ministers till now may be forgotten. But Basu will forever remain fresh in people’s memory.”

The 95-years-old former West Bengal chief minister, who was hospitalised with pneumonia, is in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) on ventilation support.