Facing wrath of voters in Jammu, majority of BJP candidates fighting urban local bodies elections in the State are once again relying on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to squeak home victorious.
In the absence of an impressive report card of their own the majority of BJP candidates are projecting face of Narendra Modi on their election material and propagating welfare schemes of the Union Government while seeking votes from the masses.
Though BJP has fielded large number of youngsters and women candidates yet several of them are facing huge credibility crisis as their public representatives have let them down by ignoring the genuine demands of people for a long time.
As door to door campaign is picking pace the BJP candidates are fast realising the ground realities.
Majority of voters are unhappy with the poor performance of BJP legislators in general as they claimed they have failed to address issues of 'bijli, sadak, pani even after running an alliance Government in the State with the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) since 2015.
The first phase of voting in the four phase municipal polls is scheduled to take place on October 8 under tight security arrangements.
According to Ramesh Kumar, District Election Officer (DEO) for the Urban Local Bodies and Panchayat elections, a total number of 815 nomination forms were filed by candidates till the last date of filling nomination forms in Jammu. Out of this 489 candidates have filed their nominations as independent candidates.
Majority of these independent candidates are supported by Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan, a newly launched apolitical organisation founded by firebrand BJP MLA, Lal Singh.
Since these municipal polls are taking place after a long gap of 13 years simmering anger against the party legislators is going to cast its shadow on the performance of the party candidates in the municipal polls.
Even in the absence of National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party the BJP is facing an uphill task to win these municipal polls.
Faction ridden State Congress unit is desperately trying to put up a united face and encash on the peoples anger against the BJP but it too faces numerous challenges. Several party candidates who were denied tickets are contesting against party nominees in the municipal polls.
When the correspondent visited different wards falling under Jammu Municipal corporation local residents highlighted their plight and held senior BJP Ministers responsible for their day to day ordeal in the absence of basic amenities.
The voters claimed, "even after receiving liberal funding from the Union Government and project sanctions the BJP-PDP alliance Government failed to start work on big ticket developmental projects for over all development of Jammu".
Counting these projects on their finger tips the voters alleged that despite winning 25 Assembly seats from Jammu region BJP Ministers failed to provide better roads, uninterrupted power and water supply. Voters alleged BJP Ministers also failed to develop Jammu as an independent tourist destination in the State.
Local residents claimed several projects such as Peerkho-Bahu Fort Gandola remained non-starter, work on construction of AIIMS is yet to start on ground zero. Only recently the chunk of identified land has been handed over to the officials of Health and medical education department.
"We fail to understand even after signing an MOU with the Sabarmati River front development corporation why Jammu Development Authority failed to start work on developing Tawi river front". Similarly, "Artificial Tawi Lake project has been stalled even after spending approximately Rs 70 crores. Expansion of Jammu airport is hanging in balance, conservation and preservation of Mubarak Mandi Heritage complex has not been accorded top priority etc", voters alleged.
Infighting in the State party unit and poor performance of sitting BJP legislators is already bothering senior party
leaders entrusted with the job of managing election campaign of the party.
A political observer closely watching these municipal polls told The Pioneer," stakes are high for BJP in these elections. Outcome of the poll results would determine the course of politics in the State in the coming months". "If BJP romps home victoriously the party high command may recommend holding of Assembly polls in the State along with Lok Sabha polls".
According to these political observers, "In case of failure the party leadership may delay the Assembly polls further giving enough time to the Governor's administration to complete big ticket developmental projects across all three regions of the State".