25 years ago, Lalu was heavily in the fight for the post of president, today the party will merge with RJD

There is going to be a big upheaval in Bihar politics once again. Sharad Yadav, who formed a separate party after separating from Nitish Kumar in 2018, is now going to be with Lalu Yadav. Today his party, the democratic Janata Dal, will be merged with the RJD. He will join the RJD at a program organized at his residence in Delhi. During this, Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav will also be present in the program.

Efforts to unify the erstwhile Janata Dal

Sharad Yadav had already announced merger with RJD. He made this clear by tweeting on Wednesday. Sharad Yadav had said that, "This will be part of his efforts to bring different organizations of the erstwhile Janata Dal together. Establishing a strong opposition in the country is the need of the hour. That's why I am with the former Janata Dal in this direction- I have been working for a long time to unite other like-minded parties as well. Hence, I have decided to merge my party LJD with RJD."

In 1997, Lalu-Sharad clashed over the post of President.

In July 1997, there was a tussle between Lalu Yadav and Sharad Yadav over the post of Janata Dal President. At that time the working president of Janata Dal used to be Sharad Yadav. Lalu Prasad Yadav challenged Sharad Yadav for the post of president. For this election, Lalu Prasad Yadav had made his colleague Raghuvansh Prasad Singh the Returning Officer, Sharad Yadav went to the Supreme Court against it and the Supreme Court removed Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and made Madhu Dandawate the Returning Officer. While being the working president of the party, Sharad Yadav had increased the number of his supporters in the party's executive committee to such an extent that Lalu Prasad Yadav had an idea that if he contested the elections, he would be defeated. Therefore Lalu decided to form a separate party Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Was identified as Lalu's rival

RJD chief Lalu Prasad had quit the Janata Dal in 1997 and formed his own party due to his differences with its leadership as the probe against the fodder scam accelerated, in which he was a prime accused. Sharad Yadav was then seen as his rival within the Janata Dal and later joined Nitish Kumar in a campaign to end RJD's 15-year rule in Bihar in 2005.

Did not contest elections alone from 2018

74-year-old Sharad Yadav had separated from Nitish Kumar in 2018 and founded the democratic Janata Dal. However, since then his political downfall also started. He did not contest the elections alone since his separation from JDU. Party chief Sharad Yadav himself contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on an RJD ticket. In the 2020 Bihar assembly elections, Sharad's daughter Suhashini Yadav also contested on an RJD ticket.