As the electioneering for the fifth phase of polling in Jammu region is nearing its end, different political parties have started door-to-door campaign to woo the electorate in the run up to the crucial day of polling on December 20.
The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) currently running an aggressive campaign across Jammu region has separately launched its ‘foot soldiers’ to carry out last minute door-to-door campaign with a clear message to defeat dynastic rulers and ‘intruder’ Congress in the poll race.
The BJP is aiming to reap rich harvest in the last leg to accomplish its Mission 44 plus. The BJP is also reaching out to lakhs of voters through advertisements issued in different media. The theme of their campaign in the last leg of campaigning is revolving around defeating all three political parties — Congress, National Conference and PDP to install a BJP-led stable Government in the State.
The star campaigners of the party including Mathura MP Hema Malini, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu and Union Minister Uma Bharti, in all their election meetings appealed to the voters to show exit doors to the Congress and punish regional parties National Conference and PDP for ignoring the plight of Jammu region during their term in office.
To achieve its goal, the BJP is banking heavily on the support base of women and youth electorate. Presence of youth and especially large percentage of women during all the major election rallies is a clear indication that the campaign managers were able to reach out to the target audience in an effective manner.
By hard selling their growth agenda and exposing the bad governance of successive State Governments led by National Conference, Congress and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State, BJP has also made an effort to make inroads in the strong pockets of rival candidates in the fray.
On the other hand the Congress, devoid of any concrete campaign strategy, has been left struggling with fighting factionalism and attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their election meetings.
The party has also failed to mobilise its cadre on ground zero to match BJP’s team effort. Majority of grass root workers at the panchayat level have either deserted the party at the crucial juncture or campaigning silently for the rival parties to teach a befitting lesson to the Congress leaders.
leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad is shuttling between different constituencies to salvage lost ground. In the last round the Congress is staring at a worst defeat. Modi’s appeal to the voters in Jammu to punish the Congress is expected to work in favour of BJP.
Congress candidates have been left to fend for themselves. Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi chipped in with some help and addressed only few election meetings but they too failed to trigger a wave in support of party candidates facing strong anti-incumbency in their strong holds.
The alliance partners Congress and National Conference instead of beating their rivals during the campaign wasted most of their time in settling scores with each other and measuring swords to cut each other to size.
Omar has been lethal in his utterances and repeatedly attacking Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for counting only sins of his Government and unilaterally taking credit for all the good work during the last six years.
To retain his party’s vote base in Jammu, Omar is not sparing the BJP either and ridiculing them for seeking votes in the Assembly elections in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Interestingly, both Congress and National Conference could not dare organise big show of strength in Jammu city to impress the voters.