New Delhi, Oct 3: Pollsters have given a lead to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the Congress and allies. While the Doordarshan-DRS exit poll has projected a simple majority for the NDA giving them 287 seats, Star TV-Insight has placed the ruling combine more comfortably with 295-310 seats.The poll results shown on Doordarshan and conducted by Development and Research Services (DRS) gave the Congress and allies 174 seats at the end of the fifth and final round of polling.
However, according to the exit poll conducted by Lokmat, the NDA is likely to be restricted to 242 seats, 27 short of a simple majority, while the Congress and its allies are expected to secure 227 seats in the 13th Lok Sabha.
The DRS poll has predicted a gain of 34 seats for the NDA compared with the last Lok Sabha, 13 more seats for the Congress, and a loss of 47 seats of the others.
The poll says that the BJP secured 41 per cent of votes, a positive swing of 3 per cent against 34 per cent of the Congress 34(+5 per cent), and others 25 per cent (-8 per cent).
The DRS poll covered 34,000 voters spread over 155 Lok Sabha constituencies. The Star TV-Insight had a sample of 1.67 lakh people.
Individually, BJP is projected to bag 185 seats according to the DRS poll, three more than it had in the 12th Lok Sabha, while Congress will make a gain of five seats to reach 146. In UP, the BJP has not performed as badly as was predicted by observers. As per the DRS poll, it will get 46 seats out of 85, whereas Star TV-Insight has put the figure between 48 and 52. The Congress will get 14 seats according to DRS, while Insight gave 8-12 seats to the party in the largest state. The party had failed to open its account in the last general elections. According to DRS, the Samajwadi Party will get 16 and the BSP seven seats. Insight has given both the parties together 23-27 seats. In Bihar, where polling has been held in 50 out of 54 seats, DRS says the NDA will bag 30 seats, showing a gain of four, while the Insight surveygives the alliance 27-31 seats. The RJD-Congress combine will bag 20 seats according to DRS. Insight gives the combine 19-22 seats. In West Bengal, the Left Front will get 23 seats, 10 less than in 1998 polls, says DRS. Insight, however, gives 29-33 seats out of 42 to the front. The Trinamool Congress-BJP combine will gain eight seats to reach the figure of 16, according to DRS. Insight gives the combine 8-11 seats.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.