In this election season when political parties are in search of bankable candidates and politicians new parking bays, flamboyant Rajya Sabha member Amar Singh and his Lok Sabha associate Jaya Prada - both expelled from the Samajwadi Party some years ago - joined Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh’s UP-based Rashtriya Lok Dal, scotching days of speculation that they may end up in the Congress.
While Amar is tipped to contest the Lok Sabha election on a RLD ticket from Fatehpur, Jaya Prada could be trying her luck from Bijnore.
“I and Jaya Prada undertook a 1,000-km-long padyatra in eastern UP despite both my kidneys failing,’’ Singh said, announcing his new political liaison with Ajit’s party at a press meet at his residence.
That Amar chose put “I” before Jaya Prada, in violation of the English language rules, showed why his talks with the Congress failed. The grand old party, it seems, was ready to field Jaya Prada from Moradabad, UP (now held by cricketer-turned-MP Mohammed Azharuddin who’s expected to shift to a different state), but was a bit cagey about “officially’’ inducting Amar Singh into the party fold.
But the former cinestar-turned-parliamentarian was not willing to enter an alliance without her “mentor’’ Amar who had stuck with her after she was thrown out of SP. Jaya Prada had earned the wrath of powerful SP leader Azam Khan, now a minister in the Akhilesh Yadav Government, by contesting from Rampur, his stronghold. Khan, in fact, had quit SP for the same.
Jaya Prada, however, said that the reason why she joined RLD was because “Ajit Singhji always used to support me - and Amar Singhji will do everything to strengthen the party.’’