No political alliance will make 272 Lok Sabha seats needed to form the government after the general elections, and the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will get 203 seats, according to a pre-poll survey conducted by TV channel Star News.
However, the study says the Congress is most likely to emerge as the single largest party with 155 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a close second with 147.
A statement by the channel on Saturday said both the UPA and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would have to look for partners outside their respective coalitions.
The survey, conducted jointly with pollster Nielsen, gives 191 seats to the NDA and 104 to the Third Front, comprising the Left parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and others.
The statement said the so-called ‘fourth front’ consisting of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) would get 39 seats, while others would win six.
The survey, conducted March 26-April 3, took a sample size of 50,400 voters spread over 224 constituencies across all the states.
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This was the second opinion poll by Star-Nielsen. The first had predicted that the ruling UPA would get 257 seats, including those won by the SP, RJD and LJP, who are now going to the polls independently of the Congress.
The earlier survey gave the NDA 184 seats.