MATHURA, Uttar Pradesh: She may seem to be comfortably placed in the Lok Sabha polls to Mathura, polling for which is being held on Thursday but residents of the area are disappointed with sitting MP and yesteryears’ dream girl Hema Malini for having ignored thre interests of the Parliamentary constituency in the last five years.
The actor-turned politician, who rode the Modi wave in 2014 to snatch the Jat-dominated Mathura seat from former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh grandson and RLD Chief Chaudhary Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary by defeating him with a margin of over 3.3 lakh votes, may npot find it easy this time round with the voters angry with her for ignoring their interests over the last five years.
Venting their anger for isolating the locals, a group of 6-7 voters in Kota village of Mathura said, ?She has never visited us. In time of need, whom we should contact? She has no connect with the people of this constituency.
Though the voters are of the view that she would manage to retain this seat , even if only in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they nevertheless feel that the wining margin of the BJP would have been higher if they had fielded a ‘son of the soil’ from here.
We will not see who is contesting from here. If Modiji is at the centre, everything will go fine. He is teaching a lesson to terrorists at the border,says Bir Singh, a security guard posted at Oriental Bank of Commerce in the city.
Locals in the Govardhan area were of the view that if the BJP had fielded a son of soil candidate, the winning margin would have crossed that during the last elections.
They said for the sake of the country, we will cast our vote in favour of Hema Malini.
Considered a strong hold of the RLD , Mathura witnessed a Modi wave in 2014 which demolished all caste equations and helped Hema malini in clinching the seat from young Chaudhary.
This time, however, the chalenge fo the actpor-turned politician could be toughter as she is pitted against Narendra Singh, who is the SP-BSP-RLD alliance candidate.
The Congress has fielded Mahesh Pathak from the seat.
Voting in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura Lok Sabha seat is underway for 2019 general elections. The results be announced on May 23.In 2009 elections, RLD contested in alliance with the BJP for 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The total amount of money utilized by Hema Malini from her MPLAD fund is Rs 21 crore out of Rs 25 crore she was entitled to and Rs 22.5 crore released by the Central government.
MPLAD funds are the amount allocated to an MP to carry out development works in his or her constituency.
Records of the Lok Sabha show that between 2014 and 2019, Hema Malini asked 210 questions and participated in 18 debates. (agencies)
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