Once a star candidate of Samajwadi Party, Jaya Prada joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday.
Jaya Prada after she was officially inducted into the BJP she said, “This is a significant moment for me. Be it cinema or politics, I have worked with all my heart and dedicated my life to it. Thankful to the BJP for this respect.”
Jaya Prada will most likely contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh against Samajwadi Party’s key candidate Azam Khan. Jaya Prada won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat in 2004 and 2009. Interestingly her rival today, Azam Khan brought Jaya Prada to Rampur for Samajwadi Party.
A bitter rivalry between the two leaders became public when Azam Khan cricitsed Jaya Prada after she moved to the Amar Singh camp. In 2009, Azam Khan supporters openly campaigned against the party candidate Jaya Prada.
Again 2009, Jaya Prada accussed Azam Khan of circulating morphed pictures of her, which Azam Khan denied. Jaya Prada won the 2009 election but by a reduced margin of about 30,000 votes.
In 2018, Jaya Prada also compared Azam Khan to the character of Alauddin Khilji from the Bollywood movei Padmaavat. Alauddin Khilji was portrayed as a barbarian, Muslim conqueror capable of unimaginable cruelty. She said, “When I was watching Padmaavat, Khilji’s character reminded me of Azam Khan ji, how he had harassed me during elections when I was contesting.”