Mumbai, Sep 23 - The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has retained all its state ministers in the first list of 80 candidates it released Wednesday for the Oct 13 Maharashtra assembly elections.

Contesting in alliance with the Congress, the NCP is fighting on 114 seats and the Congress on 174 in the 288-member assembly.

The second list of 34 candidates was likely to be announced late Wednesday or Thursday, a party office-bearer said here Wednesday evening. The last date for filing nominations is Friday.

Prominent among those in the NCP list are State party chief R.R. Patil (Tasgaon-Kauthe Mahankal), Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal (Yeola), and outgoing Assembly Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar (Chandgad).