From Mandal Commission to Sonia to Nitish, Lalu tells all in upcoming memoir

With election fever mounting across the country, RJD boss Lalu Prasad will be spilling the beans on many inflection points in the country's political history in his upcoming memoir, the book's publishers said Thursday.

Prasad, a former union minister and Bihar chief minister, has penned the memoir with journalist-turned-teacher Nalin Verma and the memoir will release on April 6, a Rupa Publications statement said.

Titled "Gopalganj to Raisina", the book is a recollection of the journey of India's "most colourful" political leader and navigates his humble origins in Phulwaria village to his remarkable rise as the Railway Minister, it said.

The book relives the twists and turns as well as the highs and lows of his life.

"In doing so, it reveals little-known facets of many inflection points in the nation's history: the Emergency, how he got V P Singh to implement the explosive Mandal Commission recommendations, the arrest of BJP leader L K Advani during the latter's Rath Yatra, Sonia Gandhi's decision to not lead the UPA government, his acceptance of Manmohan Singh's candidature for prime minister in 2004, and his relationship with friend-turned-foe Nitish Kumar," the statement said.

The autobiography, described as a political potboiler, is most important if one has to understand the evolution of the politics of the Dalits and the marginalised, it said.