Mathura: She was named Dream Girl when she entered the Hindi film industry in the late 1960s and has continued to rule the hearts of her fans.
Nearly four-and-a-half decades late, popular film star Hema Malini, 65, is out to charm her way through by demolishing stiff caste factors that come into play in each election in Mathura, the birthplace of Hindu deity Krishna.
Several factors seem to be going her way. Hema Malini dons three hats here — depending on where she is. She becomes a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin in Brahmin-dominated localities, Aisha Bi in the Muslim neighbourhood and a Jat in Jat-dominated villages. And all not without valid reasons.
She was born into a Tamil Iyengar family, converted to Islam to marry film colleague Dharmendra who happens to be a Punjab Jat.
“Yes I am married to a Jat, so what’s wrong if I flaunt this aspect?” she poses a counter question.
Mathura is a complex constituency which keeps swinging between caste factors and religious sentiments. Out of nearly 1.6 million voters, Jats with 345,000 votes form the majority, closely followed by Brahmins, Muslims, Rajputs, and other castes.
And it has been the combination of Jat-Muslim factor that ensured the victory of the Rashtriya Lok Dal’s Jayant Chaudhary in the 2009 polls. The RLD is supposed to be quintessentially a party of Jats for Jats, headed by federal civil aviation minister Ajit Singh.
However, Mathura has not remained unaffected by the September Jat-Muslim communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar, making incumbent MP Jayant Chaudhary’s situation is bit risky. Jats are angry with his father Ajit Singh who did not do much to either stop or control riots and annoyed fellow Jats by visiting only Muslim riot victims, taking Jats for granted.
Jayant is cautious. He is not using his father’s posters or pictures and is trying to evoke sentiments riding on the name of his grandfather, former Indian prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh — the tallest Jat leader of his time.
“It won’t be correct to label Charan Singh just as a Jat leader. He was leader of the entire state and farmers. He never did caste-based politics and [his son or grandson] seeking votes [by using] his name is an insult to the memory of the great leader,” said Vikas Khanna, a local BJP leader.
The RLD is contesting the Mathura seat as junior ally of India’s ruling Congress party. As the April 24 voting date nears by, it becoming clearer by the day that the main fight is between Hema Malini and Jayant Chaudhary.
Hema Malini was candid in admitting that she grabbed the opportunity to run for the Mathura seat when it was offered by the party, saying it was a now-or-never kind of situation.
“See Mathura is not new to me. I keep coming to Vrindavan [part of Mathura constituency] regularly and am fully familiar with the situation here. I realised that you have a limitation as a social worker and that you can do much more as an MP,” Hema said, who in the past purchased a house in Vrindavan and dances before the deity each time she visits.
Ask her about the problems of the widows of Vrindavan and she brushes it aside. Talking to Gulf News at her Radha Ashok Hotel room on Friday, she termed it a small issue saying she had some bigger tasks at hand to tackle.
Cleaning the Holy river Yamuna which passes through Mathura and Vrindavan and getting Mathura a world heritage status are her two main agendas.
“It’s definitely not easy but I am confident I will do it. Krishna has sent me here for this [purpose] only,” she said.
With some poll-eve opinion polls suggesting that BJP could win as many as 50 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats form Uttar Pradesh, BJP workers are on cloud nine. They say the fight would become a non-fight when its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi comes and addresses a rally here on Monday.
BOX
Short interview:
GN: Are you seeking votes on your name, the name of BJP or Modi?
Hema Malini: It’s the same. We are like petals which come together to form a lotus that we know (the lotus is BJP’s electoral symbol). It’s the same as BJP has nominated me from here and Modi is our prime ministerial candidate.
GN: Would you have enough time in Mathura after the elections?
HM: Basically I am committed and this is what matters. And they (voters) know it. I am here to serve them. I have no ministerial ambitions. Time is no issue. I do some shows which are say once a month, and though acting is my life, I do limited number of films only. Whether I win or lose, I will keep coming to Mathura and work towards its due development and recognition.
GN: People remember your husband Dharmendra as one who did not enjoy being in politics and abandoning Bikaner never to visit it again after he was elected as a BJP lawmaker in 2004.
HM: We are different personalities. He keeps worrying about me and I keep telling him there is nothing wrong in contesting an election.
GN: Did he discourage you?
HM: Yes he did and tried his best but failed. He did tell me what to opt for — a safer Rajya Sabha route — and I told him that having served as a member of the Rajya Sabha (2004-2009) it’s time to enter electoral politics and make use of the Modi wave.