City Councilor Tito Jackson’s critical words for Mayor Martin J. Walsh in recent months have started a buzz that the outspoken Roxbury pol is angling to challenge the problem-plagued first-term mayor next year.

“I watch City Council hearings, I watch him and I don’t think there’s any question,” said veteran City Hall watcher Joe Slavet. “He looks like the first real comer.”

Urban League President Darnell Williams notes Jackson had been ratcheting up his public profile, and said Walsh could be vulnerable on issues that Jackson has spoken out on, like the schools budget and racial tensions in Boston, particularly at Boston Latin School. Walsh received support from the minority community based on campaign promises, Williams said, but residents will be able to vote on his actions next year.

“The evaluation of the track record will speak volumes as to whether there is a second term,” Williams said. “There’s a whole litany of issues we can very easily focus in on that need to be addressed.”

Jackson, the District 7 councilor since 2011, isn’t saying whether he intends to run. But in an interview with the Herald, he heavily criticized Walsh on the city’s troubled school system and other issues, and wasn’t shy about taking aim at a series of high-profile failures under Walsh’s watch.

“My job every day is to work hard for constituents to be served, whether by preventing catastrophic loss of city revenue like the Boston 2024 Olympics, which would’ve gone over budget by at least $3 billion, or by asking questions about things like IndyCar,” Jackson said.

“I see a future where I would continue to be involved in a very hands-on way in the direction of the city of Boston,” Jackson said. But he wouldn’t even hint at whether he sees himself doing that in the City Council chambers or the mayor’s office.

Walsh declined to comment on Jackson as a potential rival.

“I’m not going to say whether he would be strong or not, that’s a question you’d have to ask Tito,” Walsh said.

Former City Councilor Lawrence S. DiCara, who ran for mayor in 1983, said Jackson’s heightened profile could be a sign of higher ambitions, but could also fall under his work as a councilor.

“He’s been all over a bunch of stuff, it may be signals or it may be him doing his job,” DiCara said.

But Jackson has been going after Walsh on high-profile topics where he has shown weakness, particularly in education, Slavet said.

“The opposition to Walsh is sensing that the school department is one big sensitive issue, with the police being number two,” he said.

Walsh told the Herald he thought he had solid support from minority communities for whom Jackson has emerged as the strongest voice in City Hall.

“I still feel strong in all the communities of Boston, and the communities of color I feel very strong in,” Walsh said. “I’m not concerned about and I’m not, certainly, looking at what voting base would vote for me or not vote for me.”

Jackson, asked whether Walsh has delivered on promises to minority communities, said the city still has “work to do.”

“When you look at ?unemployment rates, the number of and scale of businesses owned by people of color in the city of Boston, we are not on an incline, we are on a decline,” Jackson said. “It is critical that the city of Boston do a better job opening doors of opportunity for city contracts.”

And he continued to criticize Walsh for not devoting more of the city’s $115 million in new growth to the schools in the face of a $50 million budget deficit earlier this year, saying the schools’ 1.8 percent increase didn’t align with increases of 8 percent for the police department.

“It’s out of line, no one said ‘It’s just too much, it’s unacceptable, it’s too much!’ ” Jackson said of the police department raise. “But that language was used with the Boston Public Schools.”

However, while he frequently had strong criticism of Walsh’s actions, Jackson said he was not working against the mayor.

“I don’t win, the city doesn’t win, if the person in the mayor’s office is not successful,” Jackson said. “So I don’t root for anyone to fail. I am deeply invested in the success of our current mayor.”