SP will not send Jaya to RS again
Jaya Bachchan could just be paying the price for her friendship with Samajwadi Party’s expelled leader Amar Singh. The SP leadership has decided not to renominate her to Rajya Sabha, as her term in the Upper House comes to an end on July 4 this year.
“The party does not have any option given the precarious strength in the UP Assembly but to let Ms Bachchan retire from the Rajya Sabha. The SP can nominate only two of its leaders for Rajya Sabha as per the strength. Possibly, this could mark an end to the party’s associations with the Bachchan family on a good note,” revealed a senior SP functionary.
For the record, Mr Akhilesh Yadav, SP UP chief and son of party president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, maintained that “his party has good relations with the Bachchan family and held Ms Bachchan in high esteem”.
Ms Bachchan is the last surviving link of the SP with the Bollywood and Mr Amar Singh, who has now floated his own party called “Lok Manch”.
Other filmstars brought into the party by Mr Amar Singh stand expelled, which include Sanjay Dutt, who had launched a high profile campaign for the party in the last general elections, Jaya Prada and Manoj Tiwari. While Ms Prada, who is Lok Sabha MP from Rampur, Mr Tiwari is a Bhojpuri filmstar and had unsuccessfully contested from Gorakhpur as an SP candidate. After the expulsion of Mr Amar Singh, Ms Prada had regretted her associations with the SP.
Though Ms Bachchan apparently politically distanced herself from Mr Amar Singh, the SP leadership felt that her link with the expelled leader “is too strong a bond to snap”.
Officially the party claims that Ms Bachchan can hardly contribute in the revival of the fortune of the party in the state. They feel that other senior leaders need to be “rehabilitated” in the Rajya Sabha.
“The SP is now without filmstars and is now sticking to the basics in the run up to the 2012 Assembly elections. However, we will miss them, as they used to pull crowds,” added the SP functionary.
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