Mere development not enough to win election: Subramanian Swamy

Subramanian Swamy said BJP can never win an election until it pushes forward Hindutva as it's core agenda.

Mumbai, Dec 18: BJP MP Subramanian Swamy on Saturday said mere development of the society or nation was not enough to win the election and BJP can never win an election until it pushes forward Hindutva as it's core agenda.

Addressing a gathering in the Ruia College here, he said, "People often say that the governments should focus on developmental works, which should be, but our history says something else. It says that whichever government focused on only development in India could never win the election."

Swamy was here to release the book "Sachchai" written by Shivsena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut. "Be it Narasimha Rao who abolished licence raj, Rajiv Gandhi who introduced industrial revolution in the country, Morarji Desai who brought down the prices of rations or N Chandra Babu Naidu, the reformer of Andhra Pradesh... All these people lost in subsequent elections," Swamy added.

"And we should not forget Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji too ... who put forth India Shining slogan. Of course India was shining at economic front, but he could not win the election and number of seats were reduced to half," the BJP leader added.

"And this is why I emphasise that developmental works for a government are necessary but not everything," Swamy said.

"We won 2014 election on two basis. Putting forth the Gujarat model of governance and people set aside their caste perception, rose above it and voted for Hindutva. This is why I always moot Hindutva as a core issue to address and govern our country which is predominantly Hindu," he added.

PTI