Actor turned politician Jaya Prada while speaking at the Queensline Literature Festival said that Azam Khan, MLA from Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, had once attempted acid attack on her when she was contesting elections. “Because the state I was in, contesting elections with Azam Khan, as a woman, with acid attack threats, the threat to my life… I couldn’t even tell my mother if I would come back alive whenever I left from home”, she said.
“Even as a sitting MP from a party, I wasn’t spared. Azam Khan harassed me. He attempted an acid attack on me. I had no certainty if I would be alive the next day. I would tell mother while leaving the house that I wasn’t sure if I would ever return home. I emerged out of it,” she added.
Prada also clarified on his relationship with former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh. She called him her ‘Godfather’. She said that Singh was the only one who stood by her during her bad phase. “Even if I tie rakhi to him, will people stop talking? I don’t care what people say,” said Prada.
She accused former Samajwadi Party head Mulayam Singh of not coming to her rescue.“Mulayam Singh ji didn’t even call me once,” she said. She revealed that she even thought of committing suicide when her morphed pictures were being circulated. “Amar Singh was on dialysis and my morphed pictures were being circulated in the region. I was crying and saying I don’t want to live anymore, I want to commit suicide. I was going through that trauma and no one supported me,” she recalled.
She added, “Only Amar Singh ji, who came out of his dialysis, stood next to me, supported me. What will you think of him? Godfather or someone else?”.
Jaya Prada and Amar Singh had formed their own Party called Rashtriya Lok Manch after being expelled from the Samajwadi Party.