Morning briefing: Mahayuti seat-sharing deal almost finalised; Prashant Kishor dares RJD to give Muslims 40 seats

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Top leaders of Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti, including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, engaged in extensive seat-sharing negotiations for the upcoming state assembly elections. The marathon meeting took place at the chief minister’s official residence, Ramgiri, in Nagpur, starting at 8 pm on Saturday and concluding at 1:30 am Sunday. A basic seat-sharing formula among the three-party alliance was outlined. State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule stated that final decisions on seat allocation will be based on candidate winnability and are expected to be completed within the next 10 days. Dig Deeper

Top leaders of the Mahayuti, including CM Eknath Shinde and his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar will be finalising a seat-sharing agreement soon (ANI Photo) (Deepak Salvi) (HT_PRINT)

On Sunday, Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor accused the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of exploiting Muslims as a vote bank. Kishor demanded that the RJD allocate election tickets to Muslims proportionate to their population in Bihar, asserting that Muslims should be fielded in at least 40 Vidhan Sabha seats. He criticized the RJD for denying the community their due rights while benefiting from their votes. Kishor also asserted that his party, Jan Suraaj, would win the upcoming Bihar assembly elections. He confidently declared that in 2025, the Chief Minister and government of Bihar would be from Jan Suraaj, with no exceptions. Dig Deeper

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Entertainment Focus

Thalapathy Vijay’s upcoming film GOAT (Greatest of All Time) is one of 2024’s most anticipated releases, marking Vijay’s transition from cinema to politics. Directed by Venkat Prabhu, GOAT promises a stylish and entertaining experience for fans, as highlighted in the trailer. The film, produced by AGS Productions, boasts a star-studded cast including Sneha, Prabhu Deva, Prashanth, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Laila, Mohan, Jayaram, and Vaibhav. Music is by Yuvan Shankar Raja, Venkat Prabhu’s cousin. The director hints at numerous surprises and compares GOAT to his previous hit Mankatha (2011) with Ajith Kumar. Venkat Prabhu discussed the film and Vijay with Hindustan Times. Dig Deeper

Lifestyle and Health

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas recently attended a wedding, showcasing their stylish outfits. Nick Jonas shared photos from the event, captioned, “Congrats @deleasakathleen and @nickmirchuk loved being there to celebrate you.” The celebration included Nick's brothers, Joe and Franklin Jonas, his mother, Denis Miller-Jonas, and their drummer, Jack Lawless. Priyanka Chopra dazzled in a black embellished dress by David Koma, looking stunning as always. The photos from the event highlighted the couple's elegant appearance and their joyous participation in the celebration. Dig Deeper

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Elon Musk has faced mockery for still referring to his social media platform as Twitter, despite its rebranding to X. Although Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and rebranded it to X shortly after, many users and even Musk continue to use the old name. The controversial rebrand led to a significant drop in the platform's market value. Nearly a year later, most users and news outlets still use "Twitter" or add disclaimers about X being "formerly Twitter." Despite efforts to push the X brand, including moving the website URL to X.com and hosting user polls, "tweeted" and "tweets" remain common terms for posts Dig Deeper

(That’s all we have at this hour in our Morning briefing. Catch you in the afternoon)