New Delhi: India's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will get only 33 per cent of votes if Lok Sabha elections were to be held now, according to a voter survey released on Friday.

The survey across 54 Lok Sabha constituencies carried out by CVoter agency for The Week magazine on July 9 and 10 gives the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) a close 32 per cent of votes.

Simultaneously, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Left Front would bag six per cent of votes each and the Third Front nine per cent. Other political forces would gather 14 per cent.

The survey covered a sample of 604 voters, according to a spokesman for the Week magazine. The Week will hit the stands on Saturday. According to the findings, the 33 per cent votes for the Congress-led UPA works out to 183-193 seats in the 545-seat Lok Sabha compared to 179-189 of the NDA.

The BSP could get 46 to 56, the Left 37 to 47 and the Third Front 52 to 62 seats. Others could win 16 to 26 seats. A total of 44 per cent said they were satisfied with the performance of the Manmohan Singh government (in contrast to 38 per cent who said 'no'). But only nine per cent said Manmohan Singh would be the best prime minister.

BJP's L K Advani topped the list of "best prime minister" with 17 per cent voting in his favour, followed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi (15 per cent), her son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi (12) and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (11).

The India-US nuclear deal may have sparked a political crisis but 58 per cent of voters said the issue of price rise was more important than the nuclear deal.

Fifty-three per cent listed corruption as their most pressing concern, followed by unemployment (45 per cent), rising prices (30) and poverty (29 per cent).

Voters were asked if the Manmohan Singh government was better than the previous Vajpayee government? Twenty-six per cent answered 'yes', 25 per cent said 'poor' while 49 per cent said they were alike.

Despite the low markings for UPA, 42 per cent said the nuclear deal was "pro-India". Only 23 per cent felt it was "anti-India". More than 50 per cent said the deal was needed to fulfil India's energy needs.

Again, 53 per cent felt the reason for the opposition to the nuclear deal was political. Only 31 per cent felt that the Left was right in withdrawing support to the UPA government over it. Forty per cent felt otherwise.

Source : IANS