Lucknow: So Jaya Bachchan has not dumped close family friend Amar Singh for Mulayam Singh Yadav after all. She has turned down the Samajwadi Party offer to re-nominate her to the Rajya Sabha.
Jaya is believed to have told the party that her family is not in favour of her accepting nomination to a second term in the Rajya Sabha. This, significantly, came after Amar Singh met her husband, Amitabh Bachchan, in Mumbai.
The Samajwadi Party has now decided to nominate old party loyalist Mohan Singh to the Rajya Sabha in her stead.
Mulayam Singh Yadav had offered to renominate Jaya Bachchan on Wednesday, prompting Amar Singh to make it personal, saying, "This is just to malign my reputation." He had also warned, "I cannot assure that rival MPs will vote for Jaya."
Amar Singh was Mulayam Singh Yadav's trusted lieutenant for years. But they fell apart last year and a war of words was fought in public before Amar Singh was expelled from the Samajwadi Party earlier this year.
Singh, who is close to the Bachchans and was the person who brought them and the Samajwadi Party together, had made at that time made a very public appeal that Jaya snap ties with Mulayam Singh.
But Jaya had refused to quit the party saying she would like to complete her Rajya Sabha term.