"Visited Mathura 250 Times": BJP's Hema Malini Says Not An Outsider

Hema Malini, named again as the BJP's candidate from the holy town of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh for next month's national election, dismissed as "absolute rubbish" any talk about her being an outsider. "I am a Gopi of Lord Krishna," the 70-year-old veteran film star and danseuse told NDTV after filing her papers for the April-May polls.

For a while as the BJP tried to finalise its candidates, Hema Malini's name was discussed for a different seat. Reports said local BJP leaders were against the re-nomination of Hema Malini. She says the objections were from "rival ticket-seekers" or others in the BJP angling to contest in Mathura.

This morning, she prayed at a well-known temple in Mathura, along with chief minister Yogi Adityanath, before filing her nomination and launching her campaign.

"I have visited Mathura over 250 times," she said, asserting that she had nurtured the constituency well.

"It is not an easy job to come all the way from Mumbai. Coming and going...coming and going...I have told people, I am a devotee of Lord Krishna, I am a Brijwasi (resident of Braj, as the region is known)."

Lok Sabha Election 2019: Hema Malini prayed with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a well-known temple in Mathura before filing her nomination

She defended her record as a parliamentarian, saying she had "many roads done, lights put up and shauchalayas (public toilets) built."

On the Ganga clean-up, one of the main election promises of the BJP, Hema Malini said "it is happening. The whole process is very difficult."

The former actor said she was not worried by the Samajwadi-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance. "I have done justice to my work, with full dedication," she said.

In 2014, Hema Malini defeated Jayant Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) by a huge margin.

Speculation that she would be moved to Fatehpur Sikri settled when the party announced her name for Mathura. The actor-turned-BJP politician had conveyed to party bosses that she would prefer to contest from the land of Radha and Krishna.

This time, Hema Malini faces the RLD's Kunwar Narendra Singh, who is the gathbandhan's nominee. A former royal, he has lost two assembly elections in Mathura. His older brother has been an MP from Mathura in the past.

The Congress has fielded Mahesh Pathak, an industrialist who contested from Mathura in 1998 and lost.

Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with 80 parliamentary seats, will vote in all seven rounds of the national election in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking reelection.

Mathura will vote in round two on April 18.