Survey gives 229 seats to NDA, Cong 106

An upbeat BJP-led NDA is projected to win 229 seats in the April-May Lok Sabha elections, 43 seats short of a majority, while the Congress is expected to settle for 106 seats, according to a survey conducted by the Hansa Research Group for NDTV.

The BJP is projected to win 195 seats on its own, riding the Narendra Modi wave in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

According to the pre-poll survey, the Congress is projected to put its worst-ever performance under Rahul Gandhi by winning 106 seats. In 1999, the Congress had won 114, its lowest till date.

The survey has showed emergence of strong regional chieftains with the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee becoming the third largest party in the Lok Sabha with 32 of the 42 seats in West Bengal, followed by J Jayalalitha’s AIADMK with 27 of the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu.

The BJD led by Naveen Patnaik is projected to better its 2009 performance by winning 17 of the 21 seats in Odisha.

Assam and Punjab are the only two states where the Congress may buck the trend of suffering reverses in the Lok Sabha. In Assam, the Congress is expected to win 13 of the 14 seats.

In Punjab, the Congress is likely to retain the eight seats it had won in 2009.
In Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana gamble appears to have boomeranged badly for the Congress. The party is projected to win five seats in Telangana, seven less than it did in 2009.
The survey showed K Chandrasekhar Rao’s TRS walking away with the credit for carving out a separate state.
It is projected to emerge victorious in 11 seats, up from two seats of 2009.

In Seemandhra, the BJP-TDP alliance is projected to win nine seats while the YSR Congress of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is likely to be rewarded for its anti-bifurcation stand. The outfit is expected to win 15 of the 25 seats in the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is projected to win 40 of the 80 seats, leaving 13 seats for Samajwadi Party of Mulayam. The BSP is expected to win 15 seats, while the Congress-RLD alliance may settle for 12.