Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Congress and its allies are hatching a scheme to have a separate Constitution for Kashmir, and making all efforts for restoration of Article 370. “Will the people of Maharashtra support the Congress and its allies who speak the language of Pakistan,” PM Modi said, addressing a rally in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar for the November 20 state Assembly elections.

“Congress and its colleagues have passed a resolution to restore Article 370,” he said. “When we made Kashmir free from Article 370, Congress opposed this in Parliament and court. Now they are again hatching a scheme to restore Article 370 and have a separate Constitution in Kashmir,” PM Modi said. “Kashmir is an integral part of India. Every Indian wants that there should be only Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Constitution in Kashmir,” Modi said. “The Congress used to say that reservations were against the country. It considered reservations were against merit. The mentality and agenda of the Congress remains unchanged. Therefore, they can’t come to terms with the fact that someone from OBC has been the PM of the country for the last 10 years,” he said.

“The Prince of Congress, while he is abroad, openly claims that his party will scrap reservations. To further their agenda, Congress and Maha Vikas Aghadi are conspiring to divide SCs, STs and OBCs into small castes,” he said. PM Modi also said the BJP-led Mahayuti government renamed Aurangabad as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and fulfilled the wish of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.

“The whole Maharashtra knows that the demand to rename this city as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar was raised by Balasaheb Thackeray,” he said.

The Congress party went to the court to overturn this decision, he added. The Maha Vikas Aghadi government was in power for two-and-a-half years but did not have the courage to rename the city under pressure from the Congress, he said. “This election in Maharashtra is not just an election to elect a new government. In this election, on one side there are patriots who believe in Sambhaji Maharaj and on the other side there are people who praise Aurangzeb,” Modi said. “BJP-Mahayuti ahe, tar gati ahe, Maharashtrachi pragati ahe (If there is Mahayuti there is progress in Maharashtra),” Modi said.

The people of Maharashtra and Marathwada had been demanding for decades to give classical language status to Marathi, Modi said. This work related to Marathi pride was completed by the BJP, he added. “Maharashtra has attracted the maximum FDI after the formation of the Mahayuti government. The people have benefited due to the investment,” he said.