The BJP victory in Jammu and Kashmir, like in other parts of the country, was clearly because of the Modi 'wave'. It was solely on account of it that former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad lost, who was the best bet of the Congress, ended up as a loser.
In all 37 Assembly segments of Jammu region, the people who voted for the BJP had voted for Modi. At many places, the voters were not even aware of the party candidate, and also didn't bother to know about it.
On the Jammu-Poonch seat, the PDP had fielded a resident of Poonch, who was a Brahmin, like that of the BJP and the Congress, played a spoilsport for the Congress. The BJP had lost last time by a margin of about one lakh vote. The PDP this time polled about 1.68 lakh votes, while last time, it had polled 93,710 votes. It helped the BJP to win by a margin of 2.5 lakh votes.
The state unit of the Congress being in power in the state had made many efforts to project and safeguard the interests of the Jammu region,
which had real or perceived sense of discrimination. But the polarization in the erstwhile Doda district, on account of last year's communal disturbance in Kishtwar district and sharp attack on Modi by chief minister Omar Abdullah, also contributed in sliding away of even the traditional Congress voters.
Last year's disturbance along the border forcing many people to leave the area temporarily and the beheading of soldier were some of the issues on which the BJP capitalized, in a manner it had done in Kargil war, winning both the seats in 1999 parliamentary polls.
{{/usCountry}}Last year's disturbance along the border forcing many people to leave the area temporarily and the beheading of soldier were some of the issues on which the BJP capitalized, in a manner it had done in Kargil war, winning both the seats in 1999 parliamentary polls.
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