NDA Could Settle At 298 Seats With Help From BJD, TRS & YSR Cong: Survey

New Delhi: An opinion poll conducted for the wire agency IANS has said the surge from post-poll alliances would push NDA well above the majority mark of 272. The survey talked about BJD, TRS and Y S Congress who would help the NDA settle at a comfortable 298 seats.

“The YSR Congress Party led by Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy is expected to win 10 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, the Mizo National Front is likely to get one seat, the Biju Janata Dal 10 seats and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti 16 seats — a total of 37 seats between them. Added to the pre poll NDA alliance, the BJP-led alliance is expected to have an overall tally of 298 seats,” said the CVoter opinion poll for IANS.

It said BJP will get 241 seats, down from 282 seats it had won in 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

It said the BJP-led NDA is expected to garner 42 per cent of the vote nationally, while for the Congress-led UPA alliance, the vote percentage for the pre poll allies would be 30.4 per cent.

The CVoter State of the Nation March 2019 Wave 2 opinion poll released on March 24 is based on a sample survey of 10,280 this week and a cumulative base of 70,000 respondents since January 1 covering 543 Lok Sabha constituencies.

In Bihar, the NDA’s vote share is expected to be 52.6 per cent and in Rajasthan, the NDA is expected to get 50.7 per cent of the vote while in the BJP stronghold of Gujarat, the CVoter opinion poll suggests that the NDA will get 58.2 per cent of the vote share.

In Maharashtra, the NDA is expected to have a vote share of 48.1 per cent, while in BJP-ruled Haryana, the NDA could get 42.6 per cent of the vote according to the vote share projections.

However, there are states where the two alliances are not as far apart on vote share and in some, the NDA is actually behind, the CVoter opinion poll shows. Tamil Nadu is one of such states, Kerala is another. The two sides are neck and neck in Karnataka.

The opinion poll said in Bihar, the NDA is expected to win 36 seats with the help of allies Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party who together are expected to win 20 seats to the BJP’s 16.

The BJP’s other pre-poll allies are: Maharashtra – Shiv Sena (14 seats); Assam – Bodoland Peoples’ Front (one seat); Punjab – Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), one seat; Tamil Nadu – AIADMK (7 seats): Uttar Pradesh — Apna Dal (Sonelal), one seat.

In Uttar Pradesh, however, BJP would be in for a major drubbing. The NDA is expected to get 28 seats to the UPA’s four. It is a drastic markdown from the 73 Lok Sabha seats the NDA got in 2014.