Veteran actor and former MP Jaya Prada joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, ANI reported. Hours later, the party announced that she will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Rampur constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

She was elected in 2004 and 2009 from Rampur on a Samajwadi Party ticket. She will now contest against Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan and the Congress’ Sanjay Kapoor.

Jaya Prada was previously a member of the Telugu Desam Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal apart from the Samajwadi Party.

Jaya Prada contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on a Rashtriya Lok Dal ticket from the Bijnor seat, but lost the election.

She said she was happy to join a national party now and was honoured to work under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, NDTV reported.