Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday criticised the Congress-National Conference alliance after the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed a resolution calling for the restoration of the special status the erstwhile state had under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The Assembly had passed the resolution on Wednesday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government had abrogated Article 370 in August 2019 and bifurcated the state into two Union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Modi said on Friday that the resolution, which was moved by the National Conference leader and Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Chowdhary, was part of a conspiracy against the Union territory.

“As soon as Congress and the INDI alliance got the opportunity to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir, they started with their conspiracies against Kashmir...” Modi said at an election rally in Maharashtra’s Dhule.

The prime minister said: “The Congress alliance passed a resolution to implement Article 370 there again... Will the country accept this? Banners were shown in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in support of Article 370.”

Modi said that Assembly members belonging to the Opposition BJP were removed from the House for opposing the resolution.

“When the BJP MLAs protested against this with all their might, they were picked up and thrown out of the Assembly,” Modi said. “The entire country will have to understand the truth of Congress and its alliance.”

He added: “Only [BR] Ambedkar’s Constitution will be followed in Jammu and Kashmir. No power in the world can restore Article 370.”

The resolution was passed in the first Assembly session after the recent election in Jammu and Kashmir. The polls were the first in 10 years and the first since the abrogation of Article 370.

On Thursday, a scuffle broke out in the Assembly after independent MLA Khursheed Ahmad Sheikh, the brother of jailed Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, unfurled a banner demanding that Article 370 of the Constitution be restored and all political prisoners be released.

Legislators from the BJP stormed the Well of the House and tried to snatch the banner away as People’s Conference leader Sajad Lone and Peoples Democratic Party leader Waheed Para joined the fray in support of Sheikh.