Two days after her expulsion from the Samajwadi Party along with Amar Singh, Lok Sabha member Jayaprada said here on Thursday that she was ‘neither happy nor sad.’
“I have walked through fire before when I left the Telugu Desam Party in the south to reach north India. I am not surprised by the party’s decision to expel us along with four MLAs. To use and throw is the system in every party,” the Rampur MP said
Women’s Reservation Bill
Ms. Jayaprada demanded a debate in Parliament on the Women’s Reservation Bill. She said earlier she could not speak on the issue as she was tied down by party discipline. But now she would openly support the Bill.
The SP is opposed to the Bill as it supports ‘quota within quota.’
As for SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav’s reference to Mr. Amar Singh as “garbage,” as reported in a section of the media, she regretted that he was speaking the same language as the former general secretary, Azam Khan.
Ms. Jayaprada said she would continue to serve the people through Lok Manch, a non-political forum. “We will work with the poor and backward people in a caste-less atmosphere.”
Reacting to being referred to as “garbage,” Mr. Amar Singh said that for all the long years he was in the party, he was a “dustbin,” taking in all the garbage of the party.
Mr. Singh said he was being blamed for all the party decisions that backfired, including the one to join hands with Kalyan Singh in the last Lok Sabha election. This resulted in desertion of Muslim supporters.
When Ms. Jayaprada was given ticket in 2004, as none could unseat Noorbano of the Congress from there, Mr. AzamKhan supported the move, he said.
“If it was wrong to give Jayaprada the ticket for the first term, why was she nominated from the seat for the second time? It was party chief Mulayam Singh and general secretary Ramgopal who cleared her name. They signed on the papers,” he said.
Asked how many MLAs were with him, he said as of now there were four — Sandeep Agarwal, Madan Chauhan, Sarvesh Singh and Ashok Chandel. “An A-bomb is ticking in the party and it will explode anytime,” he added.
