The tug of war between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress over seat-sharing for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections has gone up a gear as the two parties insist on different things.

While the SP is asking the Congress to share names of “winnable candidates”, the Congress is refusing to do so and has shared a list of 180 Assembly seats. Sources in the SP said the party was not happy with Congress leaders making “unnecessary statements” in the media about the number of seats it should get. The SP, party insiders said, is particularly upset with AICC in-charge Rajendra Pal Gautam, who has said his party should get around 200 seats, roughly half the 403 seats in the UP Assembly.

A highly placed source in the Congress said the SP’s Lok Sabha MP Rajeev Rai had asked Congress general secretary and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during the high tea at Rahul Gandhi’s residence on October 13 to share a list of seats that the party was looking to contest in the state.…