Kolkata:

The Trinamool Congress today announced candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, in a snub to Congress which had just days earlier said that seat-sharing talks for the upcoming elections are still on.

The Congress hit back soon after Trinamool released the list.

“The Indian National Congress has repeatedly declared its desire to have a respectable seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal. The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on X (formerly Twitter).  

“The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together,” he added.

In its list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress dropped at least eight sitting MPs and brought in several new faces such as former cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kriti Azad. Cricketer Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, whereas Kirti Aazd will fight from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.

From the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, where Sandeshkhali is situated, TMC pitted its former MP Haji Nurul Islam by dropping sitting MP Nusrat Jahan.

The TMC also renominated expelled Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar seat for the second consecutive term.