Chennai: LoP Rahul Gandhi said that BJP is attempting to carry out delimitation, which is designed to disenfranchise and take away power from the Tamil people. Speaking to reporters at Mamallapuram near Chennai on Saturday he urged all national and Tamil parties to oppose the Centre’s proposed delimitation bill in the Parliament. Backing the legislation would amount to a betrayal of the people, he alleged.

Such a bid to take away power from Tamil people is a BJP conspiracy, he said. Rahul Gandhi was in Chennai to take part in the party’s brainstorming session with DCC Presidents appointed and trained under the party’s restructuring and rejuvenation plan. Addressing office-bearers at the valedictory of the 10 day training camp for DCC Presidents under a scheme called SSA, said Congress party sources. He denounced groupism and said it was a stumbling block for growth. He batted for intra-party unity. Functionaries who did not embrace and take along everyone and slog for the party’s growth by focusing on field work have no place in the organization, he added.

Every single Tamil party, national party should defeat delimitation (bill) in Parliament, he added. Rahul Gandhi alleged that anybody who supports delimitation betrays Tamil Nadu, allowing RSS-BJP to attack the state’s people and its future. He alleged that any political party or person who is supporting the BJP in its quest to pass the delimitation bill is betraying the people of Tamil Nadu, and history will remember them as the 21^st-century Ettappan,.

The 18^th-century Tamil ruler ‘Ettappan’ became synonymous with betrayal as he was said to be instrumental in the capture and killing of iconic freedom fighter Veerapandia Kattabomman by the Britishers, he said.