New Delhi, Sept 26: An exit poll conducted by Marathi newspaper Lokmat shows emergence of Congress as the single largest party at the end of the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls with the party and its allies set to bag 201 seats followed closely by BJP-led National Democratic Alliance with 200.The survey, which is at variance with the exit poll conducted by Development and Research Services (DRS) for Doordarshan which gave NDA 235 seats and Congress and its allies 145, forecast that the Congress and its allies were expected to secure 42 of the 74 seats where balloting took place on Saturday.
So far polling has been completed in 418 seats in four phases and 125 seats are yet to go to polls in the final phase.
It maintained that NDA would only be able to manage 31 seats in the fourth phase with the one remaining seat going to a smaller party.
The poll was based on a survey conducted in 83 constituencies with a sample base of 19,875 voters spread over 11 states in the first four phases of Lok Sabhaelections.
The poll said that until the third phase of balloting for 344 seats, NDA was ahead with 169 seats while the Congress had to be contented with 159 and the remaining 16 going to others -- Janata Dal (S), Left parties and the Nationalist Congress Party.
The Lokmat survey projected a major swing in favour of Congress as against its performance in 1998 Lok Sabha polls saying that it had gone up further after the fourth phase and stood at eight per cent while the swing for NDA was only one per cent.
It claimed that BJP and its allies were down by 30 seats this time as compared to the tally last year after the fourth phase.
It maintained that in UP Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal led by former Union minister Ajit Singh would improve the position by getting eight out of 24 Lok Sabha seats which went to polls yesterday.
While polling for 418 parliamentary constituencies has been completed in the first four phases, 125 constituencies will go to polls in the final phase on October 3 and4.
Meanwhile, another exit poll conducted by Jain TV after the fourth phase has projected that BJP-led NDA seemed to be heading towards absolute majority in the 13th Lok Sabha despite some minor losses in the last two phases of polling.
It claimed that in the 74 constituencies which went to polls on September 25, NDA seemed to be emerging a clear winner in 43 seats while the Congress and its allies bagging 24 seats. The Third Front, it said, appeared to be far behind with only seven seats.
It projected that after the fourth phase NDA was likely to get a total of 236 seats while the Congress 127.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.