Victor Jaya gives a left-handed pat to Azam

Losing out on Azam Khan’s support certainly affected her vote margin,but Jaya Prada defeated her closest rival from the Congress,Begum Noor Bano,by 30,000 votes. In 2004 Lok Sabha polls,she had polled 2.90 lakh votes and had won by a margin of over 85,000 votes.

“Had Azam Khan not opposed my candidature,the people of Rampur would not have taken over the control of my election,” said Jaya Prada.

“I did nothing. The people of Rampur fought the election for me and gave a befitting reply to those opposing me and the SP,” she said.

“Had Azam Khan not opposed me I would have certainly lost the election. Unko mera shukriya aur salaam,” said Prada.

“I contested the 2004 election from Rampur as Azam Khan insisted. But in 2009,he spit venom on me but his abuses turned into blessings. I will always regard him as my elder brother,” said the SP leader.

Khan had also allegedly distributed obscene CDs and posters of Jaya Prada. The party had immediately sent another Muslim mascot — national general secretary Abu Asim Azmi — and over four dozen legislators and almost all leaders of the second line of leadership for damage control.

“No political person except Jaya Prada herself can claim the credit for her success from Rampur Lok Sabha constituency as the electorate irrespective of caste and religion voted for her,” said Maulana Farhat Jamali Sajjada Nashin of the Dargah of Hazrat Hafiz Shah Jamlaullah at Rampur.

“She funded the construction of boundary walls of the neglected Muslim graveyards,new madrassas and installation of computers. So it was impossible for us to ignore her good work.”

“Jaya Prada reaped the dividend of the development work she undertook in Rampur. What Azam Khan and the others said against her was of no issue to the locals,” said Syed Tariq Abdullah,who runs an NGO in Rampur. Fasahat Khan,a political activist,said: “Development is no issue. Azam Khan did right. Why should people elect a person who comes from over a thousand miles from Andhra Pradesh. The SP should have fielded a local person.”