Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said terrorism is taking its last breath in Jammu and Kashmir where his government projected a new leadership to counter dynastic politics which has “destroyed this beautiful region”.

Addressing an election rally in the Doda district of Jammu region in support of BJP candidates, Modi said, “We and you together will make Jammu and Kashmir a secure and prosperous part of the country.”

This was the first election rally by the prime minister ahead of the first phase of Assembly polls scheduled on 18 September.

“After Independence, Jammu and Kashmir became the target of foreign powers and dynastic politics made this beautiful region hollow from within. The political dynasties projected their children and did not let new leadership grow,” the Prime Minister said.

He said his government focused on carving out a young leadership soon after “we came to power at the Centre in 2014.”

“Terrorism is breathing its last in Jammu and Kashmir,” he further said.

Promising a secure, peaceful and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir, Modi said the Assembly elections in the Union Territory are a battle between three families of the National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress, and lakhs of sons and daughters of the soil with dreams in their eyes.

Launching his campaign ahead of the upcoming three-phase Assembly polls, he held the successive NC, Congress and PDP governments responsible for the “destruction of J&K”. What their three families have done to the people of J&K were nothing less than a crime, he alleged, adding that the Assembly elections will decide the future of J&K.

Without naming the Abdullahs, Muftis and Gandhis of the NC, PDP and Congress respectively, the PM said that the parties promoting dynastic rule have misled the people and made local youth a victim of terrorism.

After Independence, J&K became a target of foreign powers and was made hollow by dynastic powers, he said. “The political powers you trusted did not care for your children, but only promoted their own children,” he said.

These are the people who did not promote new leadership in J&K, Modi said, adding it was only after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014 that panchayat elections, Block Development Council (BDC) and District Development Council (DDC) elections were held in the Chenab Valley region.

The 2018 panchayat elections were the first one since 2000, and the BDC and DDC polls held in 2019 and 2020, respectively, were the first ever in the region.