Setting at rest speculation about Jaya Bachchan's political fate, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh on Wednesday re-nominated her for the Rajya Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh. The surprise move by the Samajwadi chief is also seen as an attempt to spite Amar Singh considering his proximity to the Bachchan family.
Apart from Ms. Bachchan, Rashid Masood was named as the second SP candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls, which are scheduled for June 17. According to the UP unit president of the party, Akhilesh Singh Yadav, the names of three candidates for the forthcoming biennial polls to the Vidhan Parishad (State Legislative Council) on June 10 were also cleared. They are: Balram Yadav, Ram Naresh Yadav and Ram Sunder Das Nishad.
Ms. Bachchan's name was finalised at the recent national executive meeting of the party but was kept under wraps by the leadership. Her term as a member of the Upper House of Parliament ends in July and the biennial elections process to the Rajya Sabha has to be completed in June. Unlike the Rampur MP, Jaya Prada, Ms. Bachchan did not join forces with Mr. Amar Singh in the events leading to his expulsion from the party in February this year. Though the former SP general secretary claimed that he was still close to Ms. Bachchan, the closeness did not extend to the political arena as the latest developments have shown.
On his part, Mr. Mulayam Singh had always maintained that Ms. Bachchan had done nothing which was liable to harm the image of the party even after the expulsion of Mr. Amar Singh. In fact, at a point in time, Ms. Bachchan had reportedly stated that Mr. Amar Singh should have shown a little bit of restrain and ignored the developments in the SP around him.
‘Best wishes'
Meanwhile, Mr. Amar Singh has wished all the best to “Jaya Bhabhi” in the upcoming polls. He said in New Delhi that he was still on good terms with her.
Elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2004, Ms. Bachchan's election came under the scanner following the allegedly wrong information given by her in the affidavit filed at the time of the nominations.
