Udhampur (J&K), April 12 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the Assembly elections will be held soon in J&K and statehood will be restored so that the people have their elected representatives.

Addressing a huge election rally in Udhampur, PM Modi vehemently campaigned for the BJP candidates Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma who are fighting the Lok Sabha elections from Kathua-Udhampur and Jammu-Reasi constituencies respectively.

PM Modi said that J&K would soon have Assembly elections and its statehood would be restored so that the people elect their representatives and ministers.

He strongly criticised the Congress, National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and other such parties saying that these are dynastic parties who have done tremendous damage to J&K in the past.

“Their politics is based on the principles of government of the family, for the family and by the family. They want to drag J&K back to old dark times...To continue their grip on the people, these parties created a demon saying that if Article 370 is removed, J&K would burn and it would break away from the country. They had created such a huge wall of Article 370 that nobody from outside could see inside and nobody from inside could look outside. With your blessings, Modi has demolished that wall and buried the debris of Article 370 deep under the ground."

“I challenge any political party in the country to speak of restoring Article 370. If they do that, the people will not even tolerate to see their faces”, he said.

He said after the abrogation of 370 the youth of J&K have shown the mirror to these political parties so that their real faces come to light.

“Now these parties have started a new policy. They are going outside J&K and asking different states what benefit the people there get by abrogation of 370. The benefit of the removal of 370 has been that mothers and sisters have got their rights back, Dalits, Gadi Brahmins, Paharis, Valmikis, west Pakistan refugees and others have got their rights that were denied to them for 70 years, " the PM said.

“Mothers of security men would be worried about stone pelting attacks on their sons in Kashmir. Mothers of local children would be worried if they did not hear from their children as they would fear these children might have fallen into the wrong hands. Schools are not burnt now in Kashmir, these are now decorated. There are IIMs, AIIMS, IITs, tunnels, wider roads, and comforts of railway travel," he said.

“Tourists are coming in such large numbers. These are the changes. J&K is today progressing fast. Poor have a free ration guarantee for five years, and everybody in J&K has a free health cover of Rs 5 lakh...More than 75 per cent of villages have got safe drinking water during the last 10 years in J&K. Electricity and roads have reached everywhere. Digital connectivity is expanding. Mobile towers are seen in the farthest of places in J&K," the Prime Minister said.

“Modi’s guarantee is the guarantee to fulfil the guarantee I give to the people,” he asserted.

He spoke of the Shahpur-Kandi project and said that for decades the weak Congress government allowed the project to remain an unfulfilled task.

“The waters of Ravi would go to Pakistan and today these waters are irrigating our agricultural fields in Kathua and Samba," he said.

“This Lok Sabha election is not just an election about sending representatives to Parliament. It is an election about choosing a strong government in the country that can challenge all the challenges faced by the country,” he asserted.

He also criticised the Congress saying that their leaders did not even accept the invitation for the inauguration of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

“They say Ram Mandir is an electoral issue. It is not an electoral issue, nor will it ever be an electoral issue. The struggle for Ram Mandir is 500 years old when the idea of elections did not even exist.

“We made the Ram Mandir without spending the government money. Donations came from the poor people of this country and the Mandir was made after satisfying all legal and constitutional requirements,” he said.

He alluded to the opposition leaders eating non-veg food during the days of the Navratra. “I know who they are trying to please by doing so and which vote bank they are trying to protect...Let me remind them that when the Mughals came to India, they would not be satisfied just by defeating the local kings. They would be satisfied by demolishing our temples. The people of this country have taken a pledge to rebuild those temples,” he said.

He told the gathering that he was sure of their support. He asked everybody present in the rally to go and pay obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi temple on his behalf since he could not go there today personally.

He appealed to the voters to ensure a historic third-time victory for both Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma, the BJP candidates for the Kathua-Udhampur and Jammu-Reasi seats. / IANS