Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 25: The development plank of Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have clicked for the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir with the saffron party not only recording highest ever tally in its history in the State but also polling maximum number of votes among all political parties. Some Congress Ministers, who had been fighting elections on hollow slogans of ‘development’ which was, in fact, no where visible on ground, fell flat in the elections as Modi described definition of real development to the electorates.
The fact that people votes for development can also be well gauged from the victory of National Conference in Nagrota Assembly constituency, where the people had after a long gap saw some development and made BJP State president Jugal Kishore Sharma bite the dust by handing his brother, Nand Kishore Sharma a severe drubbing in the elections, according to political observers.
The observers were of the view that Modi’s development plank struck chord more with women and youth, who were fed up with virtual no development in their constituencies and sided with the BJP without looking at the candidates leading to fall of several heavyweights, who had been treating themselves as permanent MLAs of their constituencies by constructing few roads in their villages.
“When the people understood real meaning of the development, they shunned the Congress Ministers and MLAs, who had been fooling the people for years together, and voted for the candidates of Modi,’’ they said, adding the signals of Modi on the development were clear that it means taking railway line to uncovered areas, construction of new fly overs and bridges, bringing top industries to the State to tackle menace of employment, development of small towns on the pattern of Kutch (Gujarat), tapping tourism in potential areas etc, which the previous Governments had miserably failed to do.
The Congress and NC Ministers continued to fool the people by construction of small roads and culverts and claimed that they had been doing lot of development in their areas, leading to their defeat at the hands of first timers of the BJP whom the people voted as representatives of Modi hoping that the development chord would click.
There were, however, some exceptions in National Conference too. The party candidate from Nagrota Devender Singh Rana managed to survive the Modi wave despite the fact that the BJP had not only won the seat for two terms but even gained lead in Lok Sabha elections as Rana as MLC had managed to deliver.
“Only Rana and Dr Kamal Arora, also from NC (Bishnah) managed to survive the saffron surge in Hindu belt of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and Pawan Gupta (BJP) rebel in Udhampur district as the electorates pinned hopes of development on them instead of BJP candidates as they had watched their performance even without MLA,’’ the observers felt.
“The way Rana nursed Nagrota even as MLC, Jugal failed to do as MLA. Rana struck chord with the people, which Jugal couldn’t leading to victory of Rana despite unprecedented Modi wave in the State,’’ they said, adding similar was the case with Pawan Gupta, who had been involved in several development and social works in Udhampur even without holding any position, and managed to defy Modi wave to win the seat as an Independent candidate despite saffron surge in neighbouring segments of Chenani and Ramnagar.
The observers opined that polling of highest number of 11.07 lakh votes to the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir including 39,959 in the Kashmir valley and 26,465 in Ladakh was a clear indication that development plank of Modi has clicked among the people even in Kashmir and Ladakh regions though the BJP couldn’t win any seat except for Jammu region mainly because of lack of sufficient cadre in the two regions, who could convert the votes in favour of the party.
As already reported, the BJP had polled highest number of votes in the State, about 15,000 more than the PDP, which has become single largest party with 28 seats followed by BJP’s 25.
The observers, however, admitted that it would now be an uphill task for the BJP to deliver on the development plank or lest they will also meet the fate of Congress Ministers and MLAs, who tried to survive on hollow slogans by “fooling’’ the people of Jammu but failed.
Follow our WhatsApp channel