Jaya Prada in tears, Azam Khan too plays victim

The election battle in Rampur is nothing short of a Bollywood potboiler. Jaya Prada broke down in her first rally alleging she quit politics in fear after Azam Khan attempted an acid attack on her. Khan is playing victim too saying he is being provoked to say words that could derail his entry into the Lok Sabha.

“I didn’t want to cry. I want to smile and live. I am not scared anymore. I am a brave woman of Narendra Modi’s BJP. I used to call Azam Khan my brother, but he did not respect my Rakhi,” Jayaprada said in a rally at the Ramlila Maidan on Wednesday, after filing her nomination. A little distance away at the Qila Maidan, Azam Khan also played a victim before filing his nomination.

“The Yogi and Modi governments do not want my voice to reach the Lok Sabha . They are provoking me to say something so that I am not able to fight this election. But I believe in Gandhi and they believe in Godse,” Khan said. He then cites a flurry of cases and probes against him lately in UP.


Jayaprada is asking for votes in the name of woman pride and safety while BJP leaders from the stage call Azam Khan names like “Raavan” and “Zaalim”. She says it was Azam who brought her from Mumbai to Rampur in 2004. “Now he’s calling me an outsider. Didn’t he know I lived in Mumbai?” Jayaprada says. She also reminisces how she has tolerated insults and had to stay in Moradabad when she became a second-time MP in 2009 as no hotel in Rampur would give her a room due to Azam Khan’s fear.

Azam Khan, the Rampur city MLA, sounds more perturbed by the government’s increasing actions against him. Just on Tuesday, a chargesheet has been filed against him, his wife and son in a fraud case while a Congress leader has got a hate speech FIR lodged against Azam Khan.