IANS
Lucknow/New Delhi, May 26: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has again named actress-politician Jaya Bachchan for another term in the Rajya Sabha, a move that is likely to further alienate his one-time close aide Amar Singh.
The announcement of Bachchan's nomination was made Wednesday by Mulayam Singh's son and Uttar Pradesh SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. The SP has also nominated Rasheed Masood for the upper house of parliament.
"The Samajwadi Party parliamentary board had finalised the names of Jaya Bachchan and Rasheed Masood for nomination to the Rajya Sabha," Akhilesh Yadav said in a statement issued in Lucknow.
Bachchan is the wife of megastar Amitabh Bachchan, whose proximity to former SP leader Amar Singh is well known. Amar Singh has often stated that the Bachchans are like family to him; Jaya Bachchan too had supported him in the days before he finally exited the SP, but distanced herself from him later.
Amar Singh had said: "Jaya Bachchan is free to choose the way she likes even though she remains like family to me."
The decision to re-nominate Jaya Bachchan as one of the two party nominees for the Rajya Sabha by-poll came amid speculation that she may not be repeated to the upper house due to her proximity to Amar Singh. Also, many leaders of the SP had sought the party nomination to the upper house.
Of the 11 Rajya Sabha members retiring from Uttar Pradesh in July, seven belong to the Samajwadi Party, but the party is in a position to win only two seats in the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha for which notification will be issued May 31.
Jaya Bachchan was first nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the SP in 2004. The Election Commission disqualified her membership in 2006 following the office of profit controversy but she was re-elected on the party ticket the same year.
Jaya Bachchan credits Amar Singh for bringing her into the SP. After Amar Singh was expelled following differences with party chief Mulayam Singh, Jaya Bachchan said that she missed his presence in the party.
Amar Singh responded by saying that he too missed her presence at his fora and pointed out that other prominent Bollywood faces in the party - Jaya Prada, Sanjay Dutt and Manoj Tewari - had followed him in leaving the SP.
Rashid Masood, the other party nominee, is a former union minister who had contested the 2007 vice-presidential polls as a candidate of the third front.
SP sources said that party spokesman Mohan Singh and party leader Brij Bhushan Tewari were among the contenders for a seat in the Rajya Sabha.