One day Green asked Saffron: What keeps you so vibrant? Saffron smiled: A lot of green inside me. Once upon a time, the eastern Indian State of Bihar provided space for socialism to take centre stage. As a new government takes office in Bihar, the book JP to BJP: Bihar after Lalu and Nitish looks closely at the process of saffronisation that has taken place in this landscape, more marked than any other by milestones of political shifts and movements. Author, journalist Santosh Singh tracks the important Socialists on the national stage for the last 75 years; traces the rise and fall of Socialist and coalition governments in Patna and New Delhi; defines for us the sifting sand of opportunistic politics and an invisible future. The book answers many burning questions such as: Why the man who had sought to counter Narendra Modi’s ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ line with his vow of a ‘Sangh-mukt Bharat’ walk away from being the emerging nucleus of Opposition politics? Which top RJD leader did Prem Chand Gupta accompany to meet BJP leader Arun Jaitley in Delhi, and why? Contents: Foreword by Rajkamal Jha Acknowledgements Introduction The Full Circle Lohia To Mahamaya: The Arrival of Socialist Green Karpoori Thakur: The Original Subaltern Hero The Unsung Socialists: Ramanand Tiwary and Kapildeo Singh Total Revolution: JP’s Movement and Making of Lalu and Nitish The Congress: Not Quite Reading the Social Pulse Lalu Prasad: Mandal Charioteer and Some Untold Fodder Tales Nitish Kumar: The Development Man Who Turned Complacent Ram Vilas Paswan: The Dalit Socialist Caught between Two Worlds Saffron Journey: From Acceptance to Assertion Tejashwi and Chirag: In Their Fathers’ Big Boots The Churn: Bihar beyond Lalu and Nitish References