Jaya Prada - Political Career

Political Career

The suave and soft-spoken Jayaprada had joined the TDP in 1994 on the invitation of TDP founder N T Rama Rao, on the eve of the assembly elections then. And she rose quickly in the ranks. At that time itself, there was speculation that she would contest the polls but she preferred not to make her electoral debut although she was offered a seat by NTR.

She campaigned in several constituencies in 1994. When NTR became the Chief minister in 1994, he appointed one of his sons-in-law Nara Chandrababu Naidu as the Revenue Minister. Soon after the formation of the government, NTR's health started deteriorating, and in response to the growing influence of his wife, Lakshmi Parvati, on the political decisions of NTR, Chandrababu Naidu convinced a majority of the TDP MLAs to elect him as the chief minister. Since most of the legislators had gone over to his side, the Anti Defection Law did not apply and the Telugu Desam Party label passed on to the Chandrababu Naidu faction. During this period, Jayaprada too joined the Chandrababu Naidu faction of the party. She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha representing Andhra Pradesh in 1996. She also held the post of Telugu Mahila President.

Following differences with party Supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu, she left TDP to join Samajwadi Party and contested from Rampur parliamentary Constituency in UP during the last General election in 2004 and got elected with a margin of more than 85000 votes. During her campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, she was issued a notice by the Election Commission for violating the code of conduct by distributing bindis to women in Rampur's Swar locality. On 11 May 2009, Jaya Prada alleged that senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan was distributing nude pictures of her. She was re-elected with a margin of more than 30,000 votes.

After she came out in open support of the former General Secretary of Samajwadi Party, Amar Singh, Jayaprada was expelled from the party on February 2, 2010 citing reasons such as indulging in activities inimical to its political interests and damaging its image. Jayaprada was accused by Samajwadi party members for infiltration into the party of capitalist and communal forces, which threatened to derail it from its Samajwadi moorings and damage its secular character.