Socialist politics in Bihar appears to have come full circle with the merger of veteran leader Sharad Yadav's LJD with Tejaswi Yadav-led RJD. While RJD's support will certainly lend a helping hand to the LJD, it remains to be seen what political benefits Tejaswi Yadav could garner from the merger. Sharad Yadav has a towering personal influence in the realm of politics but his success in building an institutional front in the form of a political party has remained below par. As someone who has been a mentor to both Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar — who have dominated the political landscape of Bihar for decades — Sharad Yadav ceases to be a strong political force when it comes to party politics. The most important question is what Sharad Yadav has to offer to the RJD which is the main political opposition in Bihar and gave BJP-led NDA a neck-to-neck fight in the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections. Sharad Yadav, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, has significant influence in political circles of Uttar Pradesh and other states as well. Perhaps the young and dynamic Tejaswi Yadav considers his political outreach as an asset towards building a united front against the "communal forces in the country". The intent was clearly spelt out by the 74-year-old Sharad who cannot be "active like before" but will "talk to Akhilesh" to strengthen their fight. While Akhilesh Yadav may be the prime focus, Sharad's political manoeuvring can be more extensive. Tejaswi has been working relentlessly in Bihar to hold the bastion against the BJP-JD(U) combine. The merger is also being seen as RJD acquiring the political space and resources of the LJD. This argument, however, appears misplaced for two reasons — there is not much that Tejaswi can gain from the political space and resources of the shrinking party, and Sharad would rather like to leave his legacy to his son Shantanu and daughter Subhashini Raj Rao who were also present on the stage. Subhashini had contested the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls on a Congress ticket but ended up with a defeat. The driving motive, therefore, can be pinned down primarily to the engineering of coalition between socialist parties. Given the formidable adversary Tejaswi faces in the name of the BJP-JD(U) combine, going all alone is not at all an option for him. Alliance with Congress didn't pay dividends in the 2020 assembly elections, and the Congress party is further progressing towards a decline, as evident from the recent whitewashing in the results of five assembly elections. As the Nitish Kumar government has reached the middle of its term, this may be the right time for finding alternative alliances. Notably, Sharad Yadav had been instrumental in pushing forward Lalu Yadav in politics. In 1990, after the Janata Dal swept to power in Bihar Assembly, it was Sharad Yadav who convinced Devi Lal — one of the most towering socialist leaders of the time — to persuade PM VP Singh to prefer Lalu over Ram Sundar Das. However, Lalu had dissociated himself from Sharad Yadav in 1997 to form RJD because, as some believe, the RJD supremo saw him as a contender in the socialist block. Sharad Yadav too floated his own party Janata Dal (United) — which later merged with Samata Party of George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar. Sharad Yadav, despite growing individually in stature, lost his claim over the JD(U) which was taken over by Nitish Kumar. In 2017, Sharad was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha and, in 2018, formed his own party Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD). The party has, however, failed to leave any significant mark in the political landscape. The merger between the two parties was held quite ceremoniously under the presence of some of the biggest political figures in the state, and is being touted as "do bichhre bhaiyon ka milan (unification of two separated brothers". Political pundits, however, don't find much substance in the merger. Like Lalu Yadav, Sharad Yadav is also at the fag end of his political career and his influence has largely faded. It will be interesting to see if Tejaswi Yadav can extract some long-term benefits from the merger. At a time when socialist parties find themselves fragmented from one another, will Sharad Yadav serve as a lever for combined socialistic resonance?