Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday released his own list of 235 candidates for the UP assembly election.

The move comes a day after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav released the official list of 325 candidates, denying tickets to several Akhilesh loyalists. Mulayam also ruled out projecting Akhilesh as the party's chief ministerial candidate.

Prominent among those figuring in the list are ministers Arvind Singh Gope, Pawan Pandey and Ram Govind Chaudhary, who are the hardcore Akhilesh loyalists denied ticket by Mulayam.

Sources said the candidates declared by Akhilesh are likely to contest on different symbols as independent candidates.

"The Chief Minister called us. He instructed us to go to our respective constituencies and prepare for the elections," Indal Singh, SP MLA from Malihabad, said after Akhilesh met today with legislators who were denied tickets.

"We will go to our constituencies, work hard, and again make Akhilesh our CM," said MLA Pawan Pandey, whose ticket was cut. Pandey, although expelled from SP, continues to be a minister in the Akhilesh government.

"We will contest the upcoming elections, come what may," said defiant MLA Atul Pradhan.

"The Chief Minister has done a lot for the development of the state and we will contest and win in his name," he said.

In a new twist to the day-long high drama, Mulayam's cousin and SP General Secretary Ramgopal Yadav said many in the party do not want to see Akhilesh as chief minister again. "But, the fact remains that people of the state want him back as CM," he claimed.

On Wednesday, Mulayam, along with his brother and state party chief Shivpal Yadav, had declared candidates for 325 of the 403 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Akhilesh, who is in a bitter power tussle with Shivpal, was away on a tour of Bundelkhand when the list was released at a hurriedly-convened press conference.

The list announced by Mulayam and Shivpal, which includes 176 sitting MLAs, has left out several pro-Akhilesh ministers, including Ram Govind Chaudhary, Pawan Pandey and Arvind Singh Gope, and does not carry names of over 50 sitting MLAs.

Besides, 10 ministers, including Shivpal, sacked by the chief minister over the past few months have got tickets. These former ministers were in open defiance of Akhilesh and it paid off.

Hectic political activities began in the morning with party leaders gathering outside the residences of Akhilesh and Mulayam. A big crowd assembled outside Shivpal's residence also.

Akhilesh, clearly upset over being apparently kept out of the process to select candidates for the upcoming assembly polls, met his supporters at his 5-Kalidas Marg residence.

The meeting was attended by legislators and office bearers who did not figure in the party's official list, sources said.

Later, he spoke to Mulayam to convey his displeasure over the list of candidates from which names of his close confidants are missing, the sources said.

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