Congress, its allies kept things deliberately stuck for long time for political interests: PM Modi

Stepping up his attack on the Congress and its allies over several issues including Article 370 and Ayodhya case, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that the opposition "deliberately" kept the matters stuck for a long time for "political interests".

Addressing a public rally here, the Prime Minister said, "Things that were deliberately kept stuck for a long time, and which people motivated by political interests tried to block, we tried to find solutions to these problems for the peace and social harmony in the country."

He asserted that the dispute over Ram Janmabhoomi was resolved peacefully by the government while "Congress and its allies kept on dragging for long".

"The dispute over Ram Janmabhoomi, which the Congress and its allies kept on dragging for long has been resolved peacefully," Modi said.

Meanwhile, speaking on Article 370, Modi said, "Article 370 has now been removed from Jammu and Kashmir. Now the responsibility of taking the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on the path of development and trust is on the shoulder of the Lieutenant Governor (Girish Chandra Murmu) born and raised in the tribal region."

On November 9, the Supreme Court had awarded the disputed land to the deity Ram Lalla and asked the Centre and the state government to give the Sunni Waqf Board a five-acre plot in Ayodhya to build a mosque.

The five-phase elections to the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly began on November 30 and will end on December 20. Counting of votes will take place on December 23.

In total, 20 Assembly constituencies are going to polls in the second phase on December 7.