New Delhi:
In a major ideological shift, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday said that neither Ram temple nor Hindutva but only ‘Vikas’ (development) would be BJP’s election issue for 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
On being asked if Hindutva and Ram temple will be the election issues in the 2019 general elections, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi responded in negative and said only ‘Vikas’ would be the issue on which the BJP will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
"Vikas, Vikas, Vikas," ANI quoted Naqvi as saying in response to a question on party's election agenda for 2019 polls.
Since 1990, when then BJP president LK Advani conducted the political-religious march ‘Ram Rath Yatra’, Ram temple and Hindutva has been on top of the BJP’s electoral issues in every election.
In 2014, the party sensed that a large section of voters can’t be wooed only by the Hindutva and Ram temple issues and fought the election on the issue of ‘development’.
However, the saffron party also included building Ram temple at the earliest in its election manifesto and some of the leaders even played Hindutva card to seek votes.
