A new government had been ushered in. Narendra Modi was in South Block, the Congress was in a shambles - and Shashi Tharoor had an urgent task at hand. Not a political job, as some would expect. The Congress member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala had to write a book.

"My publisher, David Davidar from Aleph, persuaded me to write a book, taking into account the dramatic changes that had taken place in Indian politics," Tharoor says. In a little over six months Tharoor came out with India Shastra, the last of a trilogy which started with India: from Midnight to the Millennium in 1997 and moved to The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone in 2007.

Never have politicians - or even former politicos - been this busy. Last month Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader Ashutosh came out with The Crown Prince, The Gladiator, The Hope, based on the 2014 general elections. President Pranab Mukherjee released The Dramatic Decade: The Indira Gandhi Years, published by Rupa & Co. late last year. Earlier this year, Oxford University Press launched former minister Jairam Ramesh's Green Signals, on maintaining a balance between economic and ecological growth.

"It has been a trend in the West for long and now it is happening in India too," says Kapish Mehra, managing director, Rupa & Co., referring to the spate of writings by politicians. "As a nation we are maturing in the chronicling space. We are getting down to recording political history as books," Mehra says.

In the last few years, several politicians have penned their thoughts. On the list are luminaries such as L.K. Advani, Jaswant Singh, K. Natwar Singh, Najma Heptullah, Salman Khurshid and M. Veerappa Moily. "Public figures like to put things in perspective for the masses. And books are the best platform for that," Mehra adds. "When we commission leaders to write books we are looking for interesting insight into their careers and lives told with an acumen only they can provide," adds Caroline Newbury, vice-president (marketing), Penguin Random House India.

Politicians are in demand for several reasons - but mainly because publishers hope they will kick off a controversy. Natwar Singh's book One Life Is Not Enough - which held that Sonia Gandhi had been persuaded not to take up the prime ministerial post in 2004 by her son, Rahul - sold nearly 50,000 copies within a week after its release last August. The brouhaha over the book prompted Sonia Gandhi to say that she would write her own memoirs. And Singh, in turn, promised readers a sequel.

Of course, not every book is controversial. Khurshid's At Home in India: The Muslim Saga, published by Hay House India in November, explores the lives of Muslims in India and provides an insight into their thought processes, aspirations and problems. "All these details can come from someone who has a deep insight into the goings-on of that period," says Ashok Chopra, publisher, Hay House India.

Publishers maintain that the readership for such books is expanding, though a definitive figure on sales of books by politicians is unavailable. "In India everyone is interested in politics and so they are keen to read about what a politician has to say," Chopra explains. "There is an increase in the readership of political books, even those written by non-political figures such as Sanjaya Baru or Rajdeep Sardesai."

Indeed, Singh's book, published by Rupa & Co., has gone into its fifth reprint and has been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi and Tamil. The sequel, titled My irregular diary, is expected to hit bookstores later this year. "People want to know what goes inside the corridors of power. In the years to come, giving the inside story will become the new bestseller," the former minister had said to The Telegraph in an earlier interview.

If a politician is candid, the publishers are happier. A controversy, says Shobit Arya of Wisdom Tree, can turn a book into a bestseller. In 2013, Wisdom Tree published India: The Future is Now: The Vision and Road Map for the Country by her Young Parliamentarians edited by Tharoor, with contributions from young politicians such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, Jay Panda and Priya Dutt. Among other young politicos who have been penning their thoughts is former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Manvendra Singh, whose book Campaign Diary: Chronicle of an election fought and lost was published by Penguin two years ago.

Wisdom Tree has also published two books by BJP leaders - Beyond a Billion Ballots: Democratic Reforms for a Resurgent India by Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and India Aspires: Redefining Politics of Development by Nitin Gadkari. This year it will come out with a book by Vijay Goel of the BJP.

"Though a lot more books need to be written, we can say that contemporary political writing has come of age in India," Ashutosh of AAP stresses.

But it's not political writing that is being feted. Publishers are also coming out with novels or poetry written by politicians. Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who has been writing poetry for many years, launched a compilation of his poems as an album last year. In January, former Congress MP Vishwajit Prithvijit Singh released a book of poetry Kuchh Dhundhli Tasveerein, published by Yatra Books, at the Jaipur literature festival. Last week, BJP MP Varun Gandhi launched his second book of poetry Stillness, a collection of poems written over the last few years.

Last year, former Samajwadi Party leader Shahid Siddiqui came out with a novel called The Golden Pigeon. Set in the era of Partition, the love story is a portrayal of life in Old Delhi. "As a politician I have a rich treasure trove of experience to share with people. What better way than to write it down in a story format," Siddiqui says. Author of several titles in Urdu, this is his first book in English and he is currently working on his second.

Publishers point out that timing is important for political books. Baru's book was released before the general elections last year and sold 75,000 copies within a week, when non-fiction titles usually do not enjoy more than a 5,000-copy first print run. "It is important that books are written at the time when an event unfolds, not a decade later," Ashutosh reasons. The idea for his book struck him the first time in August 2013 when Modi started campaigning for the BJP.

"His style of campaigning was aggressive and something which we hadn't witnessed till then. I thought it was important to write about it," Ashutosh says. His book which started with Modi's campaign became a decisive account of the general elections with chapters on Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal - the other prime ministerial hopefuls of 2014.

Watch out for more. There are people who have stories to tell, and people who can't have enough of them.