BJP wants a puppet CM in Tamil Nadu, says Rahul Gandhi

CHENNAI/TRICHY: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, saying that they both wanted to rule Tamil Nadu from Delhi and that BJP had completely destroyed AIADMK.Campaigning for the first time in the state for this election, Rahul said Modi and Amit Shah want a weak chief minister for Tamil Nadu. "They want to rule Tamil Nadu from Delhi. They want a chief minister who can take orders from Delhi. Hence, they chose AIADMK as their alliance partner," Rahul said. "Modi is a compromised Prime Minister. He is controlled by Donald Trump. Whatever Trump says, Modi will do. If Donald Trump says jump, Narendra Modi will jump. That is exactly what he wants the AIADMK CM to do," Rahul said, campaigning in Ponneri in Tiruvallur district, Sholingur in Ranipet district, and Thuraiyur in Trichy district. "This election is fundamentally a different election. BJP wants at all costs to remove Stalin as the chief minister and replace him with a puppet in AIADMK. The historic party AIADMK has simply become a mask of BJP. The soul of AIADMK is captured by BJP," Rahul said.Recalling the UPA govts from 2004 to 2014, Rahul said Congress didn't control any state ruled by its alliance partners. "We also ruled in Delhi, but we never ever tried to rule Tamil Nadu from Delhi. We partnered with our brother Stalin and DMK, but we never threatened or attacked DMK with the Enforcement Directorate or the income tax department," Rahul said.Rahul accused BJP and RSS of waging a war on Tamil Nadu, its language and culture and said Tamils won't allow that to happen. "BJP and RSS are ignorant. They don't know who Tamils are. They don't know what Tamil means to Tamil people. Brothers in DMK and INDIA bloc are protecting Tamil from their assault," Rahul said.On the delimitation bill, Rahul said the Modi govt's plan was defeated by the joint efforts of opposition parties. "BJP proposed a women's bill, to use it as a camouflage to pass the delimitation bill to reduce the representation of south India. I am proud to say that we, the opposition, worked together and defeated this nefarious design," Rahul said.