- 1 year ago
The top focus of this episode of Newstrack is on the vice-presidential election, which has become a South versus South contest.
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00:00The sudden sway in Delhi's power play.
00:23South takes center stage in vice presidential race showdown.
00:30Tamil versus Telugu sentiment in spotlight.
00:39Radha Krishnan versus Sudarshan for vice president.
00:51Mega South face off for vice president post.
00:59That is our top focus on news track.
01:02Good evening. This is the news track with me, Maria Shaquille.
01:09The vice presidential election results may be a foregone conclusion, but it is certainly turning out to be a fascinating battle.
01:17The vice presidential election has turned into a South versus South contest with Radha Krishnan hailing from Tamil Nadu and Reddy from Telangana.
01:28The NDA's decision to field CP Radha Krishnan as its vice presidential candidate has put the DMK in a spot as rejecting a candidate from Tamil Nadu could be portrayed as disregarding Tamil pride.
01:42An issue rivals are expecting to highlight in the 2026 election campaign.
01:49The India opposition bloc's announcement of Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy as its candidate for the vice presidential election is an attempt to turn the tables.
01:58The opposition's move was to create a dilemma for Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP, a key ally of the BJP at the centre.
02:07However, the TDP leadership, which has already announced support for the NDA candidate, only came out more vehemently backing Mr. CP Radha Krishnan.
02:17And soon, what we saw was that Jagan Reddy's vice RCP, another Telugu party came out in his support.
02:25We have a power packed panel of guests lined up for you. But first up, here's what happened today.
02:36It is a war of a Telugu face versus a Tamil one in the vice presidential race.
02:40But this battle is more than just geography. Even as Prime Minister Modi called for consensus urging the opposition to back NDA's CP Radha Krishnan, the India bloc made its move.
02:54Fielding Justice Sudarshan Reddy, a former Supreme Court judge, now the face of a political challenge.
03:00The opposition parties have nominated Sri B. Sudarshan Reddygaru as their joint candidate since he reflects fully and values that saved our country's freedom movement.
03:20India today broke the news first and it was later confirmed by Congress Chief Malik Arjun Khadge, who called the vice presidential election an ideological battle.
03:33This vice presidential contest is an ideological battle and all the opposition party agreed on this.
03:44That's why we are contesting unitedly.
03:50Justice Reddy, speaking exclusively to India today, made a bold appeal to all parties, including the NDA to back him.
03:57India alliance almost represent more than 60% of the population, notwithstanding their numbers in both the houses.
04:14So I consider myself as a candidate representing more than 60% of India's population.
04:22Sources say the opposition's pick is no confidence. In fact, it is a well-thought-out gambit.
04:30A direct message to Andhra-based NDA allies, TDP, Jansena, even YSRCP and BRS.
04:37Why? Because the NDA's choice of Radha Krishnan from Tamil Nadu threw the DMK into a dilemma of its own on backing a Tamil face.
04:45But TDP remained unswayed, asserting it will back the NDA pick.
04:51In the last 10 years, in the NDA government, whichever development has happened, it has happened across the nation.
04:57It's not North India, South India, East of us. So that's how we look at it and that's how we want our development to happen.
05:04At the same time, representation to also happen.
05:06YSRCP echoed the same sentiment, vowing supporting for the NDA candidate.
05:11After discussing with our senior leaders, our party president has taken a decision.
05:17Now, since the election is inevitable, we will be supporting NDA candidate.
05:22Here's the bottom line. Radha Krishnan has the numbers but limited national visibility.
05:28But he may tempt the Tamil Nadu parties to support him.
05:31Reddy has little political backing but strong judicial background and strikes a chord with Telangana and Andhra parties.
05:38So now, the big question. Will regional roots shake up political ranks?
05:44Or will this southern clash be decided by cold, hard numbers?
05:49The countdown to the vice-presidential face-off for September 9th has begun.
05:55Bureau Report, India Today.
05:57Joining me on the show tonight, Tamili Sai Sondarajan, senior BJP leader and former governor of Telangana.
06:08We have senior congress leader, member of parliament, Manikam Tagore.
06:12Also on the show, TDP MP, Mr. Kesey Naini.
06:14I'm going to begin with you, Tamili Sai.
06:18Has the India block turned the table on the BJP or the NDA by making this announcement of Justice Sudarshan Reddy as their vice-presidential candidate?
06:29No, they cannot turn the table because it's a very strong candidature of Honorable CP Radha Kshinenji.
06:39And the candidature has been decided by our Honorable Prime Minister and all the NDA parties and the NDA Alliance partners.
06:48And it's a strong candidature.
06:52So we cannot say that the candidature from the NDA Alliance will shape the election process.
07:02So it's a strong candidates and a strong election process and very supportive election process.
07:07And definitely the NDA Alliance Honorable CP RG will win.
07:13There's no any political confusion can be created by NDA Alliance.
07:16I agree with you because we are looking at the numbers and numbers are clearly in favor of CP Radha Krishnan.
07:23So there's no question of this election going any other way but in favor of the NDA.
07:30This battle, however, ma'am, is being seen as a battle between Tamil pride and Telugu pride.
07:37You yourself are from Tamil Nadu. How do you see this shaping up?
07:41First of all, I say why the Tamil pride should be honored because it is always the DMK talks about Tamil and they talk about Tamil pride and they talk about the regional language than any other party.
07:57And particularly they say that they are the custodians of Tamil and they talk about Tamil pride more than any other party.
08:07We also from Tamil and we are also Tamil and we also have the pride of Tamil.
08:12But they always think that they are only the custodians of Tamil.
08:18So only we are asking every time you tell that you are the custodians of Tamil.
08:22But now when there is an opportunity to support a Tamilian, to support the Tamil pride, why are you denying it?
08:31When compared to the Telugu pride, it is the Honorable Chandra Babu Nahidu is a part of the NDA.
08:38And during the decision of our Honorable CPR as a candidate, he endorsed it.
08:45And Sandra Babu Nahidu, even he takes the pride of Telugu, but he always supported the other languages.
08:52He has clearly mentioned learning other languages cannot decrease the pride of Telugu.
08:57But Tamil Nadu, they are telling not telling like that. They always tell, don't learn third language.
09:04Another language is the Tamil pride will be reduced.
09:08But Chandra Babu Nahidu, even though he holds the pride of Telugu, he always supported the other languages also.
09:16But Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu chief minister or the Tamil Nadu DMK and the Tamil Nadu politicians were not in that broader view.
09:24They were always telling about Tamil view. So only we are fixing them.
09:29What happened to your Tamil pride?
09:31And what happened to your Tamil language, affection towards, affinity towards Tamil language?
09:37So you are acting, you are double acting and your tongue is double tongue.
09:41And there is a great gap between your slogans and the action.
09:46Okay, you are appealing to the DMK to back Mr. CPR.
09:49Similarly, Revant Reddy, Telangana chief minister, is appealing to one of your alliance members, that is the TDP, to back a Telugu candidate in Justice Sudarshan Reddy.
10:01So there is a counter effort that is being made by the Congress party here.
10:04No, already I mentioned it because it may be a counter effect, counter argument. But as I said, when the announcement of the India Alliance is for namesake and they want to politicize the situation.
10:24But the announcement of CPR was not like that. They assessed his qualification and he was a parliamentarian, he was a constitutional head and he was a grassroot worker.
10:37With all these qualifications he was elected, but not like India Alliance.
10:40With India Alliance, to create a confusion and in a tit-tat manner, they have created, they have appointed a candidate. So how can we accept it is a real situation? They are wantonly doing this.
10:54But India Alliance did not do like that. They did not select in that way. They had a very correlative and coherent opinion about the candidate and with broad-mindedness they selected it.
11:06So there is basically, there is difference between the selection of 100-bit CPR and the selection of the opposition candidates, 100-bit Sudarshan Reddy.
11:17Okay, so one view is, and this is what the Congress is saying ma'am, that by, and that this is an ideological battle.
11:26It's not just a battle for the post, a constitutional post, but it's an ideological battle and that they cannot give a free run to someone who is a hardcore RSS man.
11:37So, 100-bit CP Radha Krishnan, he belonged to RSS, but basically he was an RSS man.
11:48But he turned out to be a political person and there is no any corruption charges on him, no any negative charges on him.
11:55And he is a very active candidate because he has all experience to run the Rajya Sabha.
12:02But what happened to the other candidate?
12:04So, we cannot justify that a non-political person should be there.
12:09It is a political field and most of the politicians have been occupying the post.
12:14So, only what I see the opposition, the selection of the candidate as well as the fight they are creating, it is just a drama and just to shake the election process, which is not going to be shaken.
12:32It is a strong election process and India is going to win with a thumping majority.
12:37But from this election and from the announcement, everything, there is intention behind the selection of the India Alliance candidate and there is intention behind appealing for Telugu Pride.
12:53That is all intention behind that, it is a wrong intention, political intention, but there is no any wrong intention in the announcement of CPRG.
13:02So, it is very clear that people clearly understand the India Alliance is politicizing the issue.
13:08They are what the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and the Tamil Nadu TMK MPs are talking are the false Tamil pride.
13:20Absolutely, I mean, this is pure politics that play here.
13:24There is no denying that this is a political battle.
13:27Undoubtedly, Banikam Tigor, Member of Parliament of the Congress, for the Congress has also gone ahead and fielded someone from the southern part of India.
13:37Should this then be seen as a battle for Southern Vote Bank?
13:41And many are saying that this is a Tamil versus Telugu battle.
13:44What really was the thought that went into the selection of Mr. or should I say Justice Sudarshan Reddy?
13:54The thought was only simple that it is RSS ideology versus the ideology for the Constitution.
14:03We want, as BJP has decided about Mr. C. P. Radhakrishnan, who has a background of RSS, and a BJP MP from Coimbatore.
14:16Earlier he has been two times MP from Coimbatore.
14:20Then he lost two, three elections from Coimbatore.
14:23After that he has been made as governor also in the previous years.
14:28Mr. Sudarshan Reddy, on the other hand, is not from any party.
14:33He is a distinguished justice of the Supreme Court, retired in 2012.
14:39He has been a vocal person for social justice and all other issues for human rights and others.
14:46Therefore, the India Alliance of the opposition leadership decided that we should fight for an ideological battle,
14:54as the Congress President, Mr. Kargei Saab, told in the press conference that this is an ideological fight.
15:02We take this as an ideological fight because we wanted to see that the vice-presidentship of India must be kept away from RSS.
15:13For that, we are fighting this battle.
15:15OK.
15:16And we sincerely believe that all the opposition parties will unite together and support Justice Sudarshan Reddy,
15:24who has not had any kind of party affiliations.
15:27He is not a member of Congress party.
15:30He is not a member of any other political party.
15:32He is supported by all the India Alliance partners.
15:35And yesterday and today morning, when the Congress President had discussions with the senior leadership of India Alliance,
15:42there was a consensus on Justice Sudarshan Reddy.
15:46Therefore, we feel that the fight is for the Constitution versus RSS ideology of hate.
15:56Mr. Tagore, of course, you are hoping that you will get support from the TDP, YSRCP, BRS, all the Telugu parties,
16:04but that's not really coming your way.
16:06In fact, TDP and YSRCP have said that they will back the NDA candidate.
16:11Do you see this as a setback, I would say?
16:14We all know that the TDP and Mr. Pawan Kalyan's party, Janshakti, are part of NDA,
16:24and they had been consulted and they had been part of the government in here also,
16:29the NDA government in Andhra Pradesh also.
16:33The main issue is with the YCEP, which is led by Mr. Jagan.
16:39They had also given statement that after Mr. Rajna Singhji spoke to them,
16:46they will continue to support the candidature of the NDA.
16:55We feel that this is the early announcement of the candidates for Congress.
17:01For the India Alliance, we had announced it late.
17:05And when the day's progress, things will change.
17:08As we know that Justice Sudarshan Reddy is not from any political party.
17:14He is a person who is very respected across Andhra Pradesh and many parts of the country.
17:19As far as he stands across for many of those issues related to Telugu speaking people
17:25and other parts of the country.
17:27Therefore, we feel that things are in the early stages.
17:30Those people who are committed on the decision of their candidate of NDA will have time to have a rethink in the days to come.
17:39As you said that Defence Minister Rajna Singh has already spoken to most of the political party bosses to build that consensus for CP Radha Krishnan.
17:50Did the India block almost, you know, were you reacting to the candidacy of CPR?
17:57Could you have made the first announcement, have the first mover's advantage instead?
18:03We need to understand that Vice Presidentship and the Presidentship of India are not partisan things.
18:15And it is, it would have been a convention if many times there was consensus on those kind of names.
18:22That's right.
18:23The ruling establishment usually reaches out to the opposition leadership before announcements and have concerns involved in the opposition leadership also, involved in the candidature part also.
18:38But we can't expect from this regime, particularly Mr. Modi and Amisha's style of functioning, is no talks, no conversation with the opposition parties.
18:47Okay.
18:48So we were, we waited that, let the government, as the ruling establishment must take the initiative.
18:57And that initiative came through the Honorable Defence Minister Rajna Singh Ji, a little later, after their announcement publicly also of the candidate.
19:07Then, when the candidate was known, he was from the RSS background.
19:11Therefore, India Alliance has already had a clear-cut thing that we will not compromise on the ideological
19:17path.
19:18Therefore, then India Alliance leaders' meeting was called yesterday, and then India Alliance leaders
19:23met over Zoom meeting also.
19:25Then, today also the follow-up meeting was there.
19:28Therefore, at the given time, it was the government who should have taken that initiative to have an engagement
19:36of the opposition.
19:37But we are in changed time.
19:38Mr. Modi and Amisha has broken that procedures and practice in the Indian democracy long back.
19:45Therefore, we were waiting for that period, and then we had decided on our, given time,
19:51we had decided with our consultation in the democratic process.
19:54Around 26 parties were in this decision, and all were accepted unanimously.
19:58We had selected Justice Sudarshan Ali for this as the candidate of Opposition India Alliance.
20:05Okay.
20:06Let me bring in now the TDP MP, Mr. Casey Nani.
20:09Mr. Casey Nani, so is it really final now that the TDP will be backing the NDA nominee,
20:17or can there be a rethink?
20:20Are you finding yourself in a tough spot?
20:25Yeah, we are in LA LA.
20:27We are in the BJP party.
20:29So, we support the candidature, who has been, Brother Krishnaji, who is the NDA candidate.
20:36On behalf of TDP, we are going to support Brother Krishnaji as Vice President candidate.
20:41One view certainly is that Chandrababu Naidu is an Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister.
20:47He is seen as the voice of the people of Andhra Pradesh.
20:50And the Vice Presidential Candidate of the India Bloc is from Rangaredi District,
20:56which is of course now in Telangana, but he was born in United Andhra Pradesh.
21:02Don't you think all these, you know, credentials and the background of the India Bloc Cup VP
21:10candidate makes it tough for you?
21:13See, we are not at all finding any tough spots.
21:16Already we have given support to Radha Krishnaji.
21:20Before the announcement of Dr. Michelle Reddy as Vice President candidate,
21:25we respect Mr. Reddy and we also respect the sentiment of Telegroup speaking people.
21:33But prior to that, we have a good experience with Mr. Radha Krishnaji.
21:40He worked as a governor for Telangana.
21:43He worked as a governor in Northeastern State and also in Maharashtra is working.
21:48He has a vast experience in politics and he worked as two times MP.
21:52And so, we have already within two days back on it, we have given our support to Radha Krishnaji.
21:58We don't have any tough spots.
22:00We are an NDA ally.
22:01We have to take the nation's collectively.
22:05The nation was already taken.
22:07So, we are not going back.
22:08We are going to support our Radha Krishnaji very strongly.
22:11We don't have any tough spots regarding that.
22:14Okay.
22:15The NDA certainly has the numbers.
22:17So, for all practical purposes, you know, the election is a mere formality.
22:25The question is that don't you think that there should have been an effort at consensus building?
22:32Because this is a chair which requires to conduct the business of the house.
22:38The vice president is an ex-official chairman of the Rajya Sabasa.
22:45Regarding the consensus, we have taken all of the NDA alliance and the consensus were taken in the meeting.
22:51And we all supported Radha Krishnaji.
22:54By taking the prior consensus, it was announced today by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji.
22:59Even Rajat Singh ji has spoken with all the NDA alliances.
23:04And also, even they are ready to speak with the Indian people from the Indian alliance also.
23:10So, they have taken all the consensus from the NDA alliance.
23:13Okay.
23:14And we have received that consensus only four days back only.
23:17Our CM has given our concern regarding Radha Krishnaji's candidature.
23:22And also, he belongs to our neighboring state.
23:25And our CM is having a good relation with Radha Krishnaji from past 10 years also.
23:30And Radha Krishnaji also, when we met him as an MPH.
23:34He has a very good rap with our CM.
23:36And he knows the value of the CM who is working for the financial growth of India.
23:44So, they both know very well.
23:46And we are very happy to support this.
23:48All right.
23:49Mr. Kesinani, Manikam Tagore and Tamili Sai, really appreciate your time.
23:53Thank you so much.
23:54So, among the Telugu parties, the YSARCP, the TDP have come out already in support.
23:59Of CP Radha Krishnaji.
24:01It is the BRS which is yet to take a final call.
24:05Perhaps that picture will become clear in the next 24 hours.
24:09But tomorrow, the entire spotlight will be on that nomination paper,
24:13which will be filed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
24:17CP Radha Krishnan will be filing his nomination papers.
24:20The NDA alliance partners will be all in attendance.
24:23That will be our top focus the whole day tomorrow.
24:26Stay tuned.
24:27That's all from me on this edition of the news track.
24:30Thanks so much for watching.
24:31So, thank you so much for watching.
24:40.
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