This is the story of an ordinary man who did not inherit a grandegacy from a well-established and renowned family; who did not rely on family wealth and eminence; who did not attend any of the prestigious educational institutions in the country or abroad; and who did not command a dedicated vote bank of any specific class, caste or community. Yet he took on the most powerful prime minister of his time and became a formidable opponent of her politics and policies. It is the story of a man who came from aower middle-class family and who, despite stiff opposition from the most powerful Indian prime minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, won the nomination to the Congress Working Committee, not once but thrice. Chandra Shekhar: Theast Icon of Ideological Politics is an up-close and extraordinaryife story of an ordinary person who rose to become one of the tallest figures in Indian politics.