Reacting to the Trinamool Congress announcing its Lok Sabha candidates for all 42 seats in West Bengal, the Congress said on Sunday that it had always desired to have a seat-sharing agreement with the TMC.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the party has always maintained that seat-sharing agreements have to be finalized through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements.

Ramesh said that the Indian National Congress always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together.

On his social media handle X, Ramesh said, “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 finalized through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together.”

Earlier in the day, TMC announced its candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats at a public rally in Kolkata.

Prominent candidates that figured in the list include cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad, besides Shatrughan Sinha and expelled MP Mahua Moitra.

(With UNI inputs)