"Mathura is already getting developed," Hema Malini said.
The Uttar Pradesh elections will be tough for the BJP but "Yogi Adityanath will win," said the party's Mathura MP Hema Malini who is currently focusing on road building to welcome pilgrim traffic to the temple town. Rs 14,000 crores, she said, will be spent on the Bareilly-Mathura-Pilibhit road -- the national highway -- "especially for the yatris who will be coming to Mathura... they will see smooth roads," added the actor.
Along with the rest of Western Uttar Pradesh, Mathura votes in the first phase of the election.
Asked whether this is in preparation for the BJP's planned grand temple of Mathura, after Ayodhya and Varanasi, she said, "Mathura is already getting developed". The Chief Minister, she said, "is the main person behind it". "I have full government support now," she added.
Asked if she agreed that a temple and not development will be the key election issue in the election, she said it would be development, but the temple will also figure in there.
"Nothing like that...by the way, the temple will also be there... so much security is being given...all gunda gardi (hooliganism) has stopped," she told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Last year's panchayat poll results have not been very encouraging for the BJP in either Ayodhya or Mathura, where the BJP has been pushing its temple agenda.
In Mathura, the BJP got only eight of the 33 seats. The maximum number of seats, 13, was won by Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party. Of 40 seats in Ayodhya, the BJP got only six. The top party there was Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, which cornered 24 seats.
Akhilesh Yadav's ally in the coming election, Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal, won one seat in Mathura.
On Jayant Chaudhary's remark that he does not wish to be her, Hema Malini reacted sharply.
"Obviously...he cannot," shot back the actor-politician. "Hema Malini banna mushkil hai… it is very difficult... I have worked so hard to become this dream girl… You think Jayant Chaudhary can become Hema Malini? sahi bola (He is right)," she said.
Mr Chaudhary has been criticized roundly after he responded to a claim by a party member that Union Minister Amit Shah wanted him in the NDA fold.
"I don't know what all they keep saying about me...Not that they have any love or feeling for me. I tell them -- 'What will you get by appeasing me? I don't want to be Hema Malini? What will you do for the people? What have you done for the families of the seven farmers? Why is Ajay Mishra Teni still a minister?" the RLD leader had said.
Later, in face of criticism, he said he had meant it as a sarcastic remark and not any disparagement to the actor.
"I am very satisfied being Mathura MP because I'm doing a lot of work… I have made a house here... I stay here... the future of UP depends on this particular election," Hema Malini said, asking voters to join hands for development. "If we don't, we will go back 30-40 years," she added.