BARKHA: Hi nira
RADIA: Hi, did I wake you up?
BARKHA: No, no, no. I’ve been up, ya, most of the night. The stalemate continues, yaa.
RADIA: Yeah. Listen, the thing is that they need to talk to him directly. That is what the problem is.
BARKHA: Apparently now, the message from the other side is, that why did he go? Why did ballu go public? They claim that at this point will they had offered him this formula and this guys said, "no". This guys never told them they were going to withdraw support. Not withdraw support. But outside support. Apparently, PM was really pissed off cause they had went public.
RADIA: But that’s Baalu’s doing, naa… he was not instructed by Karunanidhi to do that.
BARKHA: Oh, he wasn’t?
RADIA: This is not. He was told to come away and tell Congress that.
BARKHA: And he went public
RADIA: Well, the media… media, the media was standing outside.
BARKHA: Oh God. So now what? What should I tell them? Tell me what should I tell them?
RADIA: I’ll tell you what it is---the problem and I have had a long chat with both his wife and with the daughter right
BARKHA: Haan, haan.
RADIA: The problem is if the Congress has a problem with Baalu, if they have no problem with anyone. They need and go talk to Karunanidhi. They have very good relationship with Karunanidhi directly.
BARKHA: Correct, haan.
RADIA: Because you see, in front of Baalu, in front of Maran, they can’t talk.
BARKHA: Yeah
RADIA: So they have to tell him directly, there [are] enough Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu. They need to go in and tell him exactly---the biggest problem is that the following of Alagiri is saying that you cannot give maran a cabinet post and keep Alagiri in the MoS state.
BARKHA: That’s right. But will Karuna drop Baalu?
RADIA: He… look, if you tell him that Baalu is the only problem. I would imagine, he will drop him.
BARKHA: But you see the problem right now is also over the choice of portfolios, naa…
RADIA: No. They’ve not said anything. The portfolios have not even got discussed.
BARKHA: Congress claims, for whatever it’s worth, that the DMK wanted surface transport, power, IT, telecom, railways and health.
RADIA: Wo tho pehle se list gaya tha
BARKHA: Ha, abhi coongress has offered IT telecom, chemical fertilizer and labour
RADIA: Yes
BARKHA: So this is where it'll stand off. Will DMK accept all(or both)?
RADIA: Maybe no, because they have to drop maran if you want them to be accept... Maran is wishing coal and mine.
BARKHA: Who's wishing?
RADIA: Now maran is saying, you give me coal and more mine. If he.. my honest advice to... is that you need to tell them... tell him directly that we are happy because kaniz(kanimozi) got no issue about being even as independent but alagiri is not telling her that you cannot take an independent charge if maran remains cabinet minister. And congress is sending messages through media and through various sources saying that... maran is going around telling everyone that he is the only acceptable person.
BARKHA: Ya, ya, ya. That i know.
RADIA: But that's not correct na?
BARKHA: No, i know and we've(ndtv) have taken that off... We've have taken that off.
RADIA: But also... congress needs to tell karunanidhi that we have not said anything about maran
BARKHA: OK. let me talk to the hurriyat (hurriyat?)
RADIA: Yeah? The choice of candidate we will leave to you. We have some reservation about Baalu. And let them tell the reservation. And we have not said anything about Maran. We are not asking...
(audio ends)
