By IANS,
Lucknow: It had all the elements of a soap opera as the internecine fighting within the Samajwadi Party in this election came out in the open in Rampur amid bizarre charges of nude photos being distributed, tears and police intervention of suicide threats.
The open fighting between SP general secretaries Amar Singh and Azam Khan took a dramatic turn with Jaya Prada, film actress, MP and SP candidate from Rampur constituency, accusing Khan of distributing “indecent” photos of her.
Jaya Prada told a TV channel Khan’s antics were “very disgusting”.
“He is not just distributing posters, but now he is distributing CDs. I do not know what is my life after this,” she said.
She later told a crush of TV reporters fighting tears: “I blame all parties. This is not how a woman should be treated.
“My opponents have become desperate,” she added.
Amar Singh castigated not just his rebel party leader, with whom he has had a public fallout to the helplessness of party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, but also Congress leader Digvijay Singh for allegedly spreading canards about Jaya Prada.
“Digvijay Singh and Khan conspired and distributed nude and morphed photographs of Jaya Prada in Rampur. The fight of ballots cannot be fought with photos,” Amar Singh told reporters in New Delhi Tuesday.
“We would be very happy if Digvijay Singh takes Azam Khan into his party. Is se hamare ghar ki gandagi saf ho jayegi (it will clear the dirt from our house),” he added.
Amar Singh said he had written to the Election Commission to put Khan under house custody till the elections results were announced. “We fear he might incite riots between Hindus and Muslims in Rampur”.
Azam Khan has fallen out with the SP leadership after the party joined hands with BJP rebel and former chief minister Kalyan Singh. In his stronghold of Rampur, he is perceived as working against Jaya Prada.
Amar Singh told an election rally Sunday that Jaya Prada – who has got leading Bollywood actors to campaign for her – could commit suicide in case she was defeated.
The remark led to a complaint to the police that Amar Singh was provoking Jaya Prada to take her own life.
“We have accepted the complaint against Amar Singh, but a case against him would be registered after the completion of the inquiry that is under way,” district police chief Jyoti Narayan told IANS on telephone Tuesday.
The complaint came after a night of drama during which the hotel that Jaya Prada was staying in was raided by policemen amid charges and counter-charges by rival SP supporters.