Jaya Prada made her fifth party move today as she joined the BJP (PTI photo)
Film star-turned-politician Jaya Prada will face old party colleague Azam Khan in Uttar Pradesh's Rampur seat in next month's national election, in a twist worthy of Bollywood.
Jaya Prada made her fifth party move today as she joined the BJP. Her bete noire Azam Khan remarked without referring to her: "BJP is a political party. Anybody has the right to join it. It makes no difference to us. All I am bothered with is the Samajwadi Party-BSP-RLD gathbandhan (alliance). And this alliance will win at least 70 seats."
The Samajwadi Party leader had helped Jaya Prada win the 2004 election in Rampur, pulling off quite a feat in a Congress stronghold. Jaya Prada, then fresh out of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), had debuted in the north and that too in Uttar Pradesh, the most crucial state with 80 of the country's 543 parliamentary seats.
Over the years, that association soured as Jaya Prada grew closer to Amar Singh, Azam Khan's sworn rival within the Samajwadi Party.
Regardless of the differences, Jaya Prada repeated her victory in 2009. This time, no thanks to Azam Khan, who made her cry, literally, in public.
At an election rally, Jaya Prada was on the stage when Azam Khan, invited to campaign for her, said to the crowd: "The moon looks beautiful from afar but the scars tell which rocket lands on it. That terrain is rocky, there is no greenery, no life. So everything that glitters is not the moon or a star." Jaya Prada started weeping on the stage.
Overnight, Azam Khan's face was cut out of campaign posters.
A "friend" became the worst enemy and it grew worse.
Jaya Prada claimed she was harassed by Azam Khan and had received threats from him.
"Even as a sitting MP (Member of Parliament) from a party, I wasn't spared. Azam Khan harassed me. He attempted an acid attack on me. I had no certainty if I would be alive the next day. I would tell mother while leaving the house that I wasn't sure if I would ever return home. I emerged out of it," Jaya Prada told reporters last month.
Finally, Jaya Prada followed Amar Singh out of the Samajwadi Party; they were both expelled in 2010. They formed the Rashtriya Lok Manch.
Just before the 2014 election, they both joined Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). She contested the Bijnore seat and lost to the BJP.
While it was Amar Singh whose comments praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi led to the impression that he was headed to the BJP, he remains in the RLD.