Taking a lead over rivals much ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled in the middle of next year, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party has released its first list of candidates for over 200 of the 403 seats.

Releasing the list, which had a significant number of brahmins, party supremo Mayawati directed candidates to start preparing in their respective areas and not waste time in the state capital, party sources said on Friday.

The list also had several sitting MLAs from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party while the sons of two prominent Congress loyalists also found place in it. Observers said this was not surprising as they had cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha elections.

Mayawati is said to be keen on wooing the upper castes and minorities while she is confident of her Dalit votebank.

While SP MLA Mahesh Trivedi secured a ticket from Rajpur, his party colleagues Ratanlal Ahirwar and Omvati secured tickets from Babina (Jhansi) and Nagina (Bijnore) respectively.

Sitting SP MLA Sunderlal Kureel's son Manish Kumar got the ticket from Safipur in Unnao. Meesam Zaidi and Vinod Singh, the sons of Congress loyalists Ammar Rizvi and late AICC General Secretary K N Singh respectively, were given BSP tickets from Mahmudabad in Sitapur and Chanda in Sultanpur.

Sitting BJP MLAs Phagu Chauhan,Badshah Singh and Amarjeet Singh Jansewak also figured in the list of candidates.