Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada on Wednesday broke down while addressing a rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur, from where she will be contesting forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections, while recalling about a past incident. Jaya, who recently joined the BJP, said that she was forced to leave the constituency because of attacks by Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan.
“Mai Rampur nahi chhodna chahti thi… Mai Rampur isliye chhod gayi kyonki mujhe us din tezab se attack karne ke liye socha tha, mere upar hamla kiya tha (I did not want to leave Rampur. I had to leave Rampur because that day there was an attempt to attack me with acid),†she said.
#WATCH: BJP candidate for #LokSabhaElections2019 from Rampur, Jaya Prada, breaks down while addressing a public rally; says, "Mai Rampur nahi chhodna chahti thi...Mai Rampur isliye chhod gayi, kyonki mujhe us din tezab se attack karne ke liye socha tha, mere upar hamla kiya tha" pic.twitter.com/HaWRRlHjq1
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 3, 2019
Jaya, a two-term Lok Sabha member from the Samajwadi Party, also said that she wanted to change in the way governance is practiced in the region. She has represented Rampur Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014.
On both occasions, she defeated Congress's Noor Bano from Rampur.
Of all the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Rampur has the highest concentration of Muslims, and the BJP has often banked on the division of their votes and consolidation of Hindus in its favour to win what is seen as a difficult seat for the saffron party.
Muslims are over 50 per cent of the total voters in the constituency. Riding the Modi wave, BJP's Nepal Singh had won from there in 2014.
Jaya started her political journey by joining the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 1994. Later she joined the Samajwadi Party but was expelled due to anti-party activities in 2010. A year later, she, along with Amar Singh, floated a political party, Rashtriya Lok Manch.
Later she, along with Singh, joined the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and unsuccessfully contested from Bijnor seat in the 2014 general elections.