Rahul Gandhi says delimitation will strip Tamil Nadu power

Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, August 1, 2026, accused the central government of a conspiracy to politically disenfranchise Tamil Nadu through a proposed delimitation exercise, urging all political parties to defeat the measure in Parliament. Speaking to reporters in Mamallapuram near Chennai, Gandhi described the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's push for delimitation as a deliberate attempt to strip the southern state of its political power.

Gandhi stated that the delimitation proposal is designed to disenfranchise the people of Tamil Nadu and take away their political power, calling it a BJP conspiracy. He argued that anyone supporting the proposal would be betraying the state. He invoked the historical figure Ettappan, an 18th-century Tamil ruler associated with betrayal, to label supporters of the bill as "21st-century Ettappan." Gandhi appealed directly to Tamil citizens and political parties, stating that no Tamil person should support delimitation and that every Tamil party and national party should work to defeat it in the House.

The controversy centers on the constitutional process for redrawing parliamentary constituencies, which is linked to...