New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) The Congress Saturday announced the names of 66 candidates for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections beginning next month while the Janata Dal-United released the names of 17 candidates.

The fourth list released by the Congress is of candidates for the second to fifth phases of the seven-phase elections. In the first three lists the party had announced 183 candidates for the 403-member state assembly polls beginning April 7.

Saturday's list has three candidates for the second phase, 22 for the third phase, 27 for fourth and 14 for the fifth phase. The list was cleared by the Central Election Committee of the party Friday night and released by Congress Working Committee member Oscar Fernandes.

The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) too announced its candidates for 17 seats it is contesting in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

On Sunday, JD-U president Sharad Yadav and BJP president Rajnath Singh would jointly launch the NDA poll campaign from Jhansi, said a JD-U statement.

The JD-U list includes Suresh Niranjan Bhaiya from Urai, Brijender Singh from Shikohabad, Ram Pal from Jasrana, Sujan Singh Yadav from Ghiror, Surendra Singh Tyagi from Kharkhoda, Rajkumar Agarwal from Hasanpur, Bhupender Singh from Gannaur, Mir Hadi Ali from Sahaswan, Bhagwan Singh Shakya from Usehat, Dhananjay Singh from Rari, K.K. Tripathi from Katihari, Jagdish Lal Srivastava from Nathupur, Kharagbahadur Singh from Sagri, Ramchandra Yadav from Gopalpur, Sita Rai from Mau, Subhash Chandra Srivastava from Dewaria and Mishriram from Sitapur.