Amar Singh, Jayaprada join Ajit Singh's RLD

New Delhi: Ending months of speculation, expelled SP leaders Amar Singh and Jaya Prada today joined the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal ahead of Lok Sabha polls.Singh is tipped to contest Lok Sabha polls from Fatehpur while Jaya Prada could enter the electoral fray from Bijnore.Addressing a press conference at RLD chief Ajit Singh's residence-cum-office, Singh said he was not joining RLD for electoral politics."I and Jaya Prada undertook a 1000 km long padyatra in eastern UP despite both my kidneys failing," he said."I realised that development of UP cannot be done without its bifurcation.Ajit Singh has always supported the formation of Harit Pradesh, which is very important. The kind of clarity that Ajit Singh has about creation of states like Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh is lacking in leaders of major parties," Singh said.Actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada said Ajit Singh always used to support her and she and Amar Singh will do everything to strengthen the party."We have no personal fight with Narendra Modi or BJP. Rajnath Singh is my friend as well."There are ideological differences in politics. Is it some kind of gang war?" Singh said when asked why he was joining an anti-Narendra Modi alliance when there is a talk of a wave in favour of the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.However, he hastened to add that "the politics of BJP is not in my DNA."Jaya Prada, who is an MP from Rampur Lok Sabha seat, was brought into Samajwadi Party with the efforts of Amar Singh, who was then the party General Secretary and was a close confidant of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. With the fall of Amar Singh in the party, her fortunes too had begun to fall.The bad blood between Jaya Prada and SP veteran Azam Khan had made headlines, but the cine actress had won the last Lok Sabha polls from Rampur despite stiff resistance from Khan.The influential Muslim leader had in May 2009 quit all party posts protesting against SP's decisions like aligning with Kalyan Singh and fielding Jaya Prada from Rampur.For last few months there was intense speculation that the two could join Congress. Jaya Prada is learnt to have met party president Sonia Gandhi sometimes back.However, the Congress was apparently not comfortable about inducting Amar Singh. There was also a problem in fielding Jaya Prada from Rampur seat on Congress ticket as it was a seat of prominent Muslim leader from the party Begum Noor Bano.Amar Singh said that Mulayam Singh would not feel bad over him having joined RLD."It is from this same house that Mulayam Singh started his politics and Chaudhary (Charan Singh) sahab promoted Mulayam Singh like his foster son."I have come to (Mulayam Singh's) roots," he said.Amar Singh lauded Ajit Singh for being a strong proponent of smaller states and said that leaders like Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrashekar Rao, who was at the forefront of the separate Telangana cause, were often in touch with the RLD chief.He also, meanwhile, expressed displeasure that neither Congress and BJP were "sensitive" towards the cause for the division of Uttar Pradesh.He further urged SP supremo Mulayam Singh to take steps to reopen 27 sugar mills in the state.