New Delhi, Sep 21 - The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) Monday announced its second list of 40 candidates for the Oct 13 assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.

The party also finalised the names of candidates for by-election to three seats in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, according to an official statement here.

The candidate selection was done at a meeting of the BJP's central election committee chaired by party president Rajnath Singh. It was attended by L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, his counterpart in the upper house Arun Jaitley and others.

The assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh are seen as the first major popularity test for the Congress after the April-May Lok Sabha elections, where the United Progressive Alliance that it heads retained power.

The BJP will contest 119 of the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra, leaving the rest to its alliance partner Shiv Sena.