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Exit poll gives NDA 145, Congress 105 in first 2 phases

The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies are likely to win 145 of the 268 Lok Sabha seats that went to the polls on September 5 and 11 in the first two phases of the current general election, according to an exit poll whose projections the state-owned Doordarshan telecast today.

The Congress and its allies are projected to emerge second with a tally of 105 seats.

This means a gain of 28 seats for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as compared to the 1998 Lok Sabha election results and a loss of two seats for the Congress and its allies.

The gain for the NDA is expected to be at the cost of 'other parties', which are projected to get just 18 seats, down 26 from their 1998 tally.

The exit poll, conducted by psephologist G V L Narasimha Rao of Development and Research Services, covered 76 parliamentary constituencies and 18,000 voters. The results were then projected for all 268 seats.

According to the projections, which have a 2 per cent margin of error, the BJP and its allies are expected to get 45 per cent of the votes polled, followed by the Congress with 39 and other parties 16 per cent.

The projected seats for the NDA and the Congress-led front are given in parentheses -- Gujarat (18 and eight, respectively), Maharashtra (29 and 13), Rajasthan (11 and 14), Tamil Nadu (25 and 14), Karnataka (17 and 10), Punjab (two and 10), and Haryana (seven and three). In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front is expected to get 13 seats and the Left Democratic Front the other seven.

The detailed projections did not cover all states that went to the polls.

The first two phases covered 27 seats in Andhra Pradesh, two in Goa, 26 in Gujarat, 10 in Haryana, four in Jammu and Kashmir, 28 in Karnataka, 20 in Kerala, 14 in Madhya Pradesh, 48 in Maharashtra, 13 in Punjab, 25 in Rajasthan, 39 in Tamil Nadu, seven in Delhi and one each in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, and Pondicherry.

In the first phase, polls were conducted for 145 seats out of which the NDA is expected to win 76 and the Congress, 64.

In the second phase, polls were conducted for 123 seats of which the BJP is likely to bag 69 and the Congress, 41.

One of the questions put to the respondents was whether they want a change in government at the Centre. Half of them said they want the BJP-led alliance to form the government again while 40 per cent said they want a change and 10 per cent was undecided.

Vajpayee, however, won the popularity contest hands down with 55 per cent of the respondents plumping for him, while 38 per cent backed Sonia Gandhi.

UNI

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