Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that by abrogating Article 370 the BJP had fulfilled its promise of ensuring that the entire country would be under one Constitution, and pointed out that the new Citizenship Amendment Bill does not apply to most areas of the Northeast.

He accused the “Congress and its friends” of trying to light fires in Assam, and appealed to his “brothers and sisters” there to trust him.

He was addressing an audience of around 35,000 in an election rally at Barwaddah airstrip ground of Dhanbad. More than 15 minutes of his roughly 50-minute speech was dedicated to the Northeast.

“I take this opportunity to assure crores of people of Northeast including Assam that we will not only ensure protection of their political heritage, cultural and linguistic identity but will work as per the letter and spirit of Clause 6 of Assam Accord signed in 1985 which has provision for setting up a committee to work for the safeguard of cultural, social and linguistic identity besides the heritage of Assam,” he said.

He said he had visited the Northeast more number of times than all other Prime Ministers — put together — had.

He appealed to the people of Assam and other parts of the Northeast to not get carried away by the “attempts of the Congress party to mislead them” over the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which he said was meant only to give persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan dignity.

Those who are already Indian citizens, whether they are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Jain, have “nothing to do” with the bill, he said.

He said his government had fulfilled all poll promises and that the Congress had given the coal belt nothing but “dust, smoke and deception”.

He reeled off promises he had fulfilled, and said: “Ram Janmabhoomi….” The audience interrupted during the pause. He said he was happy that and that “all hurdles in the way” of developing a “magnificent” temple had been cleared.

He cited schemes for farmers, pension for small traders, banning instant triple talaq, constitutional status to the National Backward Caste Commission, Jal Shakti ministry, and promised that by 2022 no one would live in shanties in Jharkhand and everyone would have pucca houses.