In the narrow lanes of Uttar Pradesh's Mathura, Hema Malini waves at people from the sunroof of a gleaming, dark Mercedes SUV. A man sticks out of the backseat window, holding an umbrella over the BJP candidate as the car covered with pink rose petals glides through the cramped quarters, tailed by a long convoy. The actor-politician, wearing dark glasses as additional protection from the blazing April sun, holds a faux lotus -- the symbol of her party BJP -- in one hand and a mic in the other. The umbrella follows when Hema Malini leaves the Mercedes-Benz GLE to meet people. Hema Malini is seeking re-election from Mathura, a largely rural constituency where she defeated Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Jayant Chaudhary in 2014 by over three lakh votes. Countering voters who claim they hardly saw their celebrity lawmaker in the past five years, the 70-year-old asserts that she made "250 visits" to her constituency.
