Evening brief: Cong reacts to TMC’s decision to contest all 42 seats in Bengal

The West Bengal hurdle proved to be costly for the INDIA bloc as Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced 42 names for the Lok Sabha election without leaving any room for the Congress after days of uncertainty over whether there will be any opposition alliance in West Bengal or not. The Congress reacted to the names and said it always maintained that it wanted 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. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said. Dig deeper
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday reacted sparkly to Karnataka BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde’s fresh statement purportedly saying that there is a need to rewrite the majority of the Indian Constitution. The BJP MP reportedly alleged that Congress leaders in the past amended the Constitution to downgrade Hinduism and said it must be prioritised. Dig deeper.
With Team India’s Test series against England over on Saturday, where the hosts won by an innings and 64 runs in Dharamsala to clinch the five-match contest 4-1, former India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar shifted his focus on the Ranji Trophy final, which is underway at the Wankhede Stadium between Mumbai and Vidarbha. And the batting legend was left disappointed at Mumbai’s batting performance in the match as the home team suffered a middle-order collapse, which included another flop show from captain Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer. Dig deeper.
Ariana Grande is requesting fans to stop interpreting her new album Eternal Sunshine in a negative fashion. The singer took to her Instagram Stories to pen a note where she wrote directly to her followers and fans to stop ‘sending hateful messages’ to the people in her life based on the songs of her album. On her Instagram Stories, Ariana wrote, “Hi, I just wanted to say anyone that is sending hateful messages to the people in my life based on your interpretation of this album is not supporting me and is absolutely doing the polar opposite of what I would ever encourage (and is also entirely misinterpreting the intention behind the music).” Dig deeper.