Jayaprada find no place in AP, joins Ajit's RLD

NEW DELHI : Glamorous star of yesteryears and Rampur MP Jayaprada has decided to stay put in Uttar Pradesh after failing to regain footing in her home State of Andhra Pradesh.

After having been in political limbo for quite some time, Jayaprada, along with her pal and political mentor Amar Singh, returned to active politics by joining the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) led by Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday, apparently after the BJP and Congress refused to agree for a 'package deal' with them.

Amar Singh will contest from Fatehpur Sikri - a constituency dominated by the Thakur community. Also after the elections, Amar Singh will play an important role in any post-poll alliance.

Jayaprada, on the other hand, will contest the elections from Muslim-dominated Bijnor. A senior RLD leader said the former actress had the support of Muslims after her good work in Rampur. So in Jayaprada, Ajit Singh has found a candidate who can win Bijnaor which has 5.5 lakh Muslims and 1.75 lakh Jats in a total of 14.90 voters.

In fact, Jayaprada has been hinting at returning to Andhra Pradesh politics ever since she was expelled from Samajwadi Party on February 2, 2010, for coming in open support of Amar Singh who has been her friend, philosopher and guide in the Uttar Pradesh politics.

Later, she and Amar Singh had floated a new political outfit ' Rashtriya Lok Manch ' in July 2011, which could not win even a single seat in the last Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Subsequently, Amar Singh went into a political oblivion leaving Jayaprada at political cross roads.In April last, she announced that she would stage a comeback into the Andhra Pradesh politics.

However, she has not been able to get concrete assurance from any party on her political future. She tried to contact YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, but could not get any concrete assurance from him.

She even sent feelers to Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu expressing her intentions to return to her parent party and contest from Rajahmundry.

Later, she also had a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and requested her to nominate her from Rajahmundry Lok Sabha seat. There, too, she drew a virtual blank.

However, in the wake of recent developments in the State on account of bifurcation, Jayaprada seems to have changed her mind to return to the State politics. She remained with Amar Singh and the duo's efforts finally worked out with Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

The expelled SP leaders were welcome into the RLD by party chief Ajit Singh, who said there was no question of the party breaking ties with the United Progressive Alliance.

Amar Singh, who has made critical statements against Congress and other party leaders earlier had apologised for all of his comments. "I regret all my statements in the past and apologise to all senior leaders for anything I may have said as spokesperson of Samajwadi Party," he said. Singh denied that he had ever applied to join the Congress or sought a ticket from the party.

Jayaprada, who hails from Rajahmundry and was the most glamorous heroine in Telugu film industry between 1975 and 1995, made her political debut with the TDP in 1994 following an invitation from party founder-president and former chief minister N T Rama Rao.

After NTR's death in January 1996, she was nominated to Rajya Sabha and was also made the president of Telugu Mahila, the women's wing of the TDP. However, she was denied a second term in Rajya Sabha in 2002 and was replaced by another glamorous actress Roja as the Telugu Mahila president.

Subsequently, she distanced herself from the TDP and moved to Uttar Pradesh to join the Samajwadi Party. She got elected to the Lok Sabha from Rampur in 2004 with a majority of over 80,000 votes.

She was re-elected in 2009 with a reduced majority, thanks to the bitter opposition from Azam Khan, her rival with the Samajwadi Party. Later, she moved out of the party along with Amar Singh.