Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance may corner about 276 seats, getting a clear victory in the coming Lok Sabha polls with the saffron party improving its own tally to about 197 while Congress would slip to an all-time low of 101 seats, according to projections of a latest opinion poll.

"BJP on its own will improve on its 1999 performance of 182 seats and increase its tally to about 197. NDA allies are likely to lose seats and come down to 79 seats this time," said the poll conducted for the newsmagazine 'Outlook' by Marketing and Development Research Associates.

Elections 2004-The Drama unfolds...
Political Parties in India

The survey, carried out in 106 Parliamentary constituencies across 17 States, gives about 166 seats to Congress and its allies as against its last tally of 154.

However, it projects that Congress will slip to an all-time low of 101 seats, 13 less than its 1999 performance.

Congress allies are expected to increase their tally from 40 to 65 seats while other parties are expected to corner about 101 seats, a release from the newsmagazine said.

Among the leaders, 61 per cent of the 12,722 respondents preferred Atal Behari Vajpayee as the next Prime Minister and a majority 66 per cent among them were of the view that NDA should be given another chance.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi found support among 29 per cent respondents as the Prime Ministerial candidate while a meager one per cent favoured L K Advani, Jyoti Basu and Manmohan Singh for the top post.

However, another survey gave the NDA only 231 seats against 208 seats for Congress and its allies.