At a glance: Jaya Prada's journey from Bollywood to Parliament

New Delhi: Bollywood film star-turned-politician Jaya Prada has an interesting story behind her political journey.Born in 1962 as Lalita Rani in Andhra Pradesh, her father was a financier. She started her career on celluloid with a Telegu movie Bhoomikosam which gave her a chance to perform a three-minute dance number. In later parts of her career, she not only starred with actors like Jitender, but also did many successful films with superstar Amitabh Bacchan.She won many awards and nominations for her various outstanding roles in films like Sharaabi and Sanjog.Around 1994 she stated concentrating on politics and her involvement in Bollywood dwindled. Jayaprada entered politics through Telegu Desam party in 1994 at the invitation of TDP founder N T Rama Rao. Jayaprada was expected to contest the AP assemly elections, but she opted not to run for elections.Jayaprada however took part in 1994 election campaign vigorously. N T Rama Rao became the chief minister but when NTR's health started worsening in the mid-Nineties, Jayaprada was sidelined in the TDP. NTR's son-in-law Chandrabad Naidu carried out a political coup and brought most of the TDP MLAs behind him.It was during this time, Jayaprada also sided with Naidu and was nominated to Rajya Sabha from AP in 1996. She was made the president of TDP's women wing. Later she fell out with Chandrababu Naidu and then decided to leave AP politics.While she was campaigning during 2009 Lok Sabha elections, she was issued a notice by election commission for disregard the set code of conduct and distributing bindis to women in Rampur.Moreover, local Samajwadi heavyweight in Rampur, Azam Khan, who had been shunted out of the party, conspired to denigrate her image.Jayaprada won the 2009 Lok Sabha elections with a margin of more than 30,000 votes. Jayaprada was expelled from Samajwadi party in 2010 alongwith Amar Singh. She remained MP, but joined Amar Singh's fledgling political front. The latest rumour is that Jayaprada may opt to contest LS polls in 2014 from Andhra Pradesh on a YSR Congress ticket.