Muncie(Indiana): Barack Obama sees himself with a disadvantage in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary and with an advantage in the North Carolina contest.

"So Indiana may end up being the tiebreaker," he said this week.

As he completes a four-day tour of Indiana, that's the Illinois senator's assessment of the Democratic presidential contests in the coming three weeks.

For Obama, that is a tough call. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has single digit leads in the state, according to recent polls. She has the support of Indiana's popular Democratic senator, Evan Bayh. And the state has a sizable number of blue collar industrial workers, a demographic group that has leaned in her favour.

But Obama is from neighbouring Illinois, and is well-known in the Indiana counties around Lake Michigan that have access to Chicago's media market. He also has the support of two respected former members of Congress from Indiana, Lee Hamilton and Tim Roemer.

Pennsylvania holds its primary April 22. Indiana and North Carolina hold theirs on May 6. A two-out-of-three outcome in favour of the Illinois senator at the end of that stretch may not drive Clinton out of the race, but it will permit Obama to argue that after his primary loss in Ohio, he can win an industrial state.

"If he wins Indiana, that's a pretty strong signal that he s probably going to secure the nomination in my view," said US Rep Baron Hill, an Indiana Democrat who has not endorsed either Clinton or Obama.

Source : PTI