He wrote biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shrikrishna; stayed in America for some time; and was also elected to the Central Assembly. He was

The answer is C) Lala Lajpat Rai. He wrote biographies of Mazzini, Garibaldi, Shivaji and Shri Krishna, spent about 1914 to 1919 in the United States, where he ran the Indian Home Rule League of America and wrote Young India, and was elected to the Central Legislative Assembly in 1926.

The core concept is the Extremist phase of the national movement and the Lal-Bal-Pal trio. Lajpat Rai's work bridged political agitation, Arya Samaj reform and constitutional politics, which is why he suits a Mains answer on the evolution of nationalism and the Simon Commission protest of 1928, where he was injured in the lathi charge.

• Aurobindo Ghosh is wrong. He was a philosopher-revolutionary and never held a seat in the Central Assembly, and the biographies are not his.
• Bipin Chandra Pal is wrong. He was a prolific writer and orator, but these biographies are not his work, and he was not a member of the Central Assembly.
• Motilal Nehru is wrong. He was a lawyer and Swaraj Party leader in the Central Assembly, but he did not write these biographies or work in America.

Trap: aspirants see the Central Assembly clue and pick Motilal Nehru. Match every clue in the statement, not just one, and the American stay and the authorship together point to Lajpat Rai.