Mathura: Hema Malini disappoints, but she can bank on the Modi wave

Mathura: In a three feet wide alley, chock-a-block with the entire population of a village watching a caravan of SUVs, chaos breaks loose when this Bollywood diva of yesteryear steps out of her vehicle. The excitement in the crowd forces her to rush back to the shelter of her sleek Audi. In these small villages, miles off the nearest highways, the flashy car invokes the same reaction as its passenger on the back seat, Hema Malini. However, as she starts speaking the campaign language, they start adoring the car much more than its occupant. Let’s be blunt about it. Hema Malini - the BJP’s candidate from Mathura - is unimpressive in her off-screen avtaar as a politician, but she manages to draw a crowd, mostly of curious onlookers. She does not hold big rallies, unlike the incumbent MP, Jayant Chowdhry, of the Rashtriya Lok Dal. She attends several small gatherings of people in the villages of this rural constituency. Her voice, a bit hoarse due to the intense campaign over the last one month, often disappoints people. “Umar ho gayi hai. Humare time ki heroine (She has aged. She belonged to our time),” says Sushil Kumar of Baigam village with a toothy grin while recollecting her movies he watched as a young man. But the  disappointment becomes bigger once she makes the campaign speech. The seasoned voters here, who have been at the receiving end of thousands of such speeches full of promises, find it hard to be convinced by what Hema Malini says. [caption id=“attachment_1488429” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Hema Malini addressing an election rally. AFP.[/caption] “I wonder sometime if they really think that we are such fools as to buy anything they utter,” Sushil says right after the BJP candidate promises that she would establish a cricket stadium in the village - “You see IPL on TV? Don’t you want your kids also to grow up and play in those colourful outfits?” her electoral promise goes. There are serious doubts in the crowd about the glorious proposition. “Arey ganne ke khet me cricket stadium ka karenge kya? (What will we do with a cricket stadium in the sugar cane fields?” says Ramadhar Singh, a sugarcane farmer. For him and hundreds of fellow farmers the biggest concern is the pending dues from the government from last year. In Bhadawal village, Hema Malini promises her voters that she will make Mathura a part of ‘NCR’, only to be reminded by her associates that the acronym might not ring a bell among the people here. She also leaves people baffled with a sudden burst of English during her speech. While the men prefer to be politely silent, the women in the audience burst out laughing when she switches languages. She has some nice unnamed gifts for her women voters too. “If you vote for me, I’ll make sure that the women who toil in the fields have other sources of income also,” she pauses to figure out what can be those other ways of income for the women of Mathura. After fumbling for a couple of seconds, she moves on to her next promise and the one after that. “She is lucky,” remarks Babloo, a local BJP worker. “Just because there is a wave, it will take her along,” he says of his candidate. Hema Malini invokes same reaction among most of the BJP workers in the district. “She barely speaks to anyone in the party here and her speeches are disastrous,” says another worker at the Mthura district office of the BJP. The BJP workers instead chant “har har Modi”. At each public rally, the local leaders never forget to remind the crowd that a vote for the candidate is a vote for Modi. And the people at the rallies are mostly kept on their toes with the Modi slogans. Empowered by the Modi Mantra, the BJP is now anticipating a windfall on the day of the election. If reaction of the people on the field are to be read, it’s BJP that the people are willing to vote for. “Even the Jats are leaving Jayant Chowdhry, the wave is such in favour of Narendra Modi,” claims Virender Singh, a Jat lawyer in Mathura. “There is too much of discontent among the people here. So they will vote for anyone who does not represent the Congress or the Cycle (symbol of the Samajwadi party),” he says. Kishan Singh, a farmer from Kosi, echoes the same sentiment. “What has been done here in last 10 years? We have a Jat leader, whose party stands on a foundation of farmers and the farmers are the worst affected here.” In the temple town of Mathura, you can feel the strong anti-incumbency wind. Hema Malini should feel lucky. Despite her many shortcomings she appears better placed than her rivals.