Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a stinging attack on the opposition over the Centre’s decision to scrap Article 370 and accused it of indulging in “political opportunism”.

PM Modi was addressing a rally in poll-bound Maharashtra’s Akola

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Modi lashed out at the Congress and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who had accused the ruling BJP of diverting attention from its failures in the two states of Maharashtra and J-K by referring to the abrogation of Article 370 in its polls campaign.

“For political gains, some are openly saying that Article 370 has nothing to do in Maharashtra Assembly polls and that J-K has nothing to do with Maharashtra. I want to tell such people that J-K and its people are also sons of Bharat Mata,” the PM said.

He further said that the opposition should “drown in shame” for accusing the BJP of diverting attention from its failures.

“…We are proud of the children of Maharashtra who sacrificed everything for Jammu and Kashmir. But today, for their political gains, these people who are steeped in their family are asking what has Maharashtra got to do with Jammu and Kashmir? Doob maro! Doob maro! (drown in shame),” the Prime Minister said.

In the sharpest attack yet on the opposition, Modi on Wednesday accused the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party of always speaking against “national interest”.

He said that while the Congress is “family-centred”, the NCP is mired in all types of corruption and both parties have lost all semblance of nationalism.

Stepping up his attack on the Congress and NCP over the abrogation of Article 370, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday dared them to declare in their manifesto that they will bring back the provisions which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing his first rally ahead of the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly polls, Modi said Jammu and Kashmir was “not just a parcel of land, but crown of India”, and assured it will not take more than four months to normalise the kind of situation that prevailed there for 40 years.

He accused the opposition parties of politicising the issue of Article 370 and charged them with “speaking on the same lines as that of the neighbouring country”.

Maharashtra is going to polls on October 21 and the results will be declared three days later, on October 24.