Actor-politician and BJP Mathura MP Hema Malini (File)
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Hema Malini - who last week labelled herself a 'gopi' of Lord Krishna - will defend her Mathura Lok Sabha seat against Mukesh Dhangar of the Congress and Suresh Singh of the Bahujan Samaj Party when voting opens Friday morning.
It is easy, perhaps, to forget the accomplished actor and dancer is now a veteran politician, with two terms in the Rajya Sabha to add to the two (so far) in the Lower House, and a period as the BJP's General Secretary, since she joined the party back in February 2004.
The actor-politician won Mathura - regarded by Hindus as the birthplace of Krishna and consequently a holy town - in 2014 and 2019, polling over 6.7 lakh votes each time.
In 2019 - when she beat the Rashtriya Lok Dal's Kunwar Narendra Singh - her vote share was a massive 60.9 per cent, up from 53.3 per cent in 2014, when she thumped then sitting MP Jayant Chaudhary. For context, the RLD boss - now a BJP ally - scored a big win of his own in 2009 by beating the Bahujan Samaj Party's Shyam Sunder Sharma by over 1.8 lakh votes.
To complete a hat-trick of wins she will have to see off the challenge of Mr Dhangar, who is also the INDIA bloc's joint candidate, and Mr Singh of ex-Chief Minister Mayawati's BSP.
The campaign for the Mathura seat, though it includes candidates from two major rival parties, has revolved almost completely around Hema Malini, and has included a photo op of her with women in the fields and claiming the twin titles of a 'gopi' and 'Jat bahu'.
READ | Hema Malini Poses With Women In Fields While Campaigning
A major storyline has also been Congress leader Randeep Surjewala's comment about Hema Malini, which her party slammed as "vile". The Election Commission found the remarks to be "undignified, vulgar, and uncivilised", and handed Mr Surjewala a 48-hour campaign ban.
The remarks triggered a spat, with the BJP accusing its rival of espousing a "misogynistic" mindset and the latter alleging "distortion of facts" by an "anti-woman" political party.
READ | "Can't Dishonour Women": Congress Rapped On Hema Malini Jab
The row over Mr Surjewala's comment aside, Mathura is a Jat-dominated seat and Hema Malini's marriage to fellow iconic actor Dharmendra Deol, a Jat Sikh, continues to give her a big edge, an edge that has allowed her, after back-to-back wins, to turn the 'brajwasi vs outsider' debate on its head.
READ | "If You Consider Me Outsider...": Hema Malini Counters Congress
"I'm happy to get the opportunity to serve Mathura for a third time. I will finish the work started in my two terms," she said this month.
The Congress, meanwhile, has fielded a senior state leader in Mr Dhangar who is from an Other Backward Classes community. He was likely not, though, the party's first choice.
Mr Dhangar was named shortly after boxer Vijender Singh joined the BJP.
Mr Singh, who signed for the Congress in 2019 and unsuccessfully contested a Lok Sabha seat in Delhi, had been linked with the Mathura ticket.
The BSP's Suresh Singh is seen as the outsider in this race; Mayawati's party refused to ally with the INDIA bloc given bad blood with both group-leader Congress and the Samajwadi Party, a key member. Mr Singh's presence could hurt the bloc as it might split votes.
That Hema Malini will win is widely expected; UP has been a BJP bastion since 2014, when the 'Modi wave' swept 71 of its 80 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has since won the 2017 and 2022 state polls and cleaned up in the 2019 national election, in which it got 62 seats.
READ | "People Of Mathura With Us, Will Help BJP Cross 400": Hema Malini
This is a key state for the BJP and its self-set target of 370+ seats (400+ including its National Democratic Alliance partners). Its 80 seats provide a perfect launchpad for a big total, and results here over the past decade underline the hold the party has over the Hindi heartland.
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