New Delhi:

Actor-turned-politician Hema Malini took oath as the Member of Parliament for Mathura for the third time in a row on Tuesday. Speaking about the problems faced by people in her constituency, Hema Malini said, “Mathura is a religious tourism center and people from all over the country come in. Lakhs of people pour in here every day. It is becoming difficult to manage them.”

“We have developed the city so well that people are getting all kinds of benefits and so more people are coming in. So there is more pressure on us to do even better,” she added.

On other problems faced by the tourism centre, the BJP leader said, “There are problems like dealing with monkeys, the Yamuna, and managing the crowd that comes in.”

She said that she is supporting NDA’s candidate Om Birla for the post of Speaker, the election of which is slated to be held on Wednesday. “I want Om Birla to be elected as he was excellent and he managed very well in the past five years,” she said.

Hema Malini won the Mathura constituency in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections by defeating Congress’ Mukesh Dhangar by a huge margin of 2,93,407 votes. Ms Malini (75) garnered 5,10,064 votes while Mr Dhangar and BSP candidate Suresh Singh received 2,16,657 and 1,88,417 votes respectively.

Hema Malini also won the seat in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

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.

NDTV is now available on WhatsApp channels. Click on the link to get all the latest updates from NDTV on your chat.

New Delhi:

Responding to the row over Congress leader Randeep Surjewala’s remarks on Mathura MP Hema Malini, the actor-politician said Opposition leaders must learn how to respect women from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking to reporters before filing her nomination for the Lok Sabha election in the temple town, she said the Opposition targets only “popular people”. “They target only popular people because targeting the unpopular ones won’t do them any good. They should learn how to respect women from PM Narendra Modi.”

The BJP has launched a scathing attack on the Congress over Mr Surjewala’s remarks.

BJP leader Amit Malviya yesterday shared a video in which Mr Surjewala is seen addressing a public gathering. While saying that people elect leaders to raise their issues, he makes a remark on Ms Malini. In his post on X, Mr Malviya said it is the “most disgusting description someone can come up with”. “This is Rahul Gandhi’s Congress. It is misogynistic and abhors women,” the BJP leader said.

Under fire, Mr Surjewala said the BJP’s IT cell has developed a habit of distorting facts and spreading lies. He shared another video from the same event, in which he is heard saying, “We respect Hema Malini ji because she is married to Dharmendra ji, she is our bahu.”

Accusing the BJP of twisting facts and spreading lies, he said the ruling party’s objective is to divert attention from the Narendra Modi government’s “anti-youth, anti-farmer, anti-poor policies and its conspiracy to finish the Constitution”.

“These pawns of BJP never asked the Prime Minister why he said ’50 crore ki girlfriend’, called a woman MP ‘Surpanakha’, trolled a woman Chief Minister, used the expression ‘Congress’s widow’ and described the Congress leadership as a ‘jersey cow’,” he said.

Mr Surjewala said he only meant that every elected representative should be accountable to the people, be it him or (Haryana Chief Minister) Nayab Singh Saini and (BJP leader) Manohar Lal Khattar.

“My intention was not to insult Hema Malini ji or to hurt anybody. That’s why I clearly said we respect Hema Malini ji and she is our bahu. The BJP is anti-women, so it sees everything from its misogyny-tinted glasses and conveniently spreads lies,” he said in the post.

Among the leaders who have targeted the Congress over Mr Surjewala’s remarks are Yogi Adityanath. Mr Adityanath said Mathura is a land of art and Ms Malini is an artist who has showcased India’s culture at the global level. Without naming Mr Surjewala, he said, “If the Congress does not like this, I doubt if even God can save them.”

Ms Malini said she is very happy to be renominated from the Mathura seat. “I am very happy to get the opportunity to serve the people of Mathura for the third time. I will finish the work that could not be done in my two terms. This time, huge development projects will be launched for the people of Mathura. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath extends all possible help for Mathura,” she told news agency ANI.

Mathura:

Bharatiya Janata Party MP and third time candidate from Mathura Hema Malini prayed here at Vishram Ghat on the bank of Yamuna river on Wednesday, a day before she files her nomination papers.

After the prayer, the veteran Hindi film actress told reporters that she will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the Yamuna is cleaned.

#WATCH | Mathura, Uttar Pradesh: BJP sitting MP and candidate from Mathura Lok Sabha constituency, Hema Malini performs Yamuna puja before filing her nomination. pic.twitter.com/0RSgTishPS

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) April 3, 2024

Hema Malini has been an MP twice from Mathura (2014 and 2019) and is contesting from the constituency a third time in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

She had prayed at the spot before filing her nomination papers earlier as well .

According to a party source, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is expected to accompany Hema Malini to her nomination filing on Thursday.

The last date for filing the nomination papers in Mathura, the seat that goes to polls in the second phase of seven-phase election, is April 4.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

State home minister Narottam Mishra sparked a controversy after a purported video of his speech in which he mentioned about ‘making Hema Malini dance’ in his constituency surfaced on social media.

Reacting to Mr Mishra’s remark, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday wrote on X (formerly Twitter) sharing the video, “Listen to the real meanness of the minister (Narottam Mishra) of the cultured BJP about women. He doesn’t even spare his own party leader.”

On the other hand, earlier on Wednesday, Congress media advisor Piyush Babele also wrote on X for the same that insulting women was the identity of the BJP.

“This is Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra. He is talking about making the BJP MP dance (Hema Malini). Insulting women is the identity of BJP,” Babele wrote.

Mr Mishra is a strong BJP leader and has been contesting from Datia Assembly seat since 2008. 

This time, it will be his fourth time to be in the fray for the state assembly polls scheduled to be held next month.

Madhya Pradesh will vote on November 7 and the counting of votes will take place on December 3. Through the polls, the state will elect legislators from 230 Assembly constituencies.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)