The ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine in Maharashtra will return to power securing a majority with 145-155 seats in the 288-member state assembly, an NDTV-Indian Express opinion poll showed on Friday night.

The survey projected the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, main challenger of Congress-NCP, to finish with 120-130 seats, while others would bag upto 15 seats.

The survey, which covered 100 constituencies and 29,613 people, showed a one per cent swing in favour of the ruling combine since the May Lok Sabha election.

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In western Maharasthra, where 72 seats are at stake, Congress-NCP was shown to be getting 45 seats, far ahead of BJP-Sena's 21 with others bagging six seats. In the 30 seats of the Konkan region, the saffron combine was poised to be miles ahead with 17 seats as against nine of the Congress-NCP.

In Mumbai, where there are 38 seats up for grabs, the Congress-NCP is likely to get 20 seats, BJP-SS 14 and others two.

Yesterday, the opinion poll had projected Congress-NCP to do well in Marathwada and Vidarbha and the Sena-BJP to do well in northern Maharashtra.

The opinion poll shows NCP chief Sharad Pawar leading the popularity chart of Congress-NCP leaders for the chief minister's post logging 33 per cent of the votes, ahead of incumbent Sushilkumar Shinde (30 per cent).

Among saffron leaders, Sena Chief Bal Thackeray's popularity rating for the top slot in the state stood at 33 per cent while BJP's Pramod Mahajan was favoured by 19 per cent voters and Gopinath Munde by 16 per cent.

The popularity of Uddhav, the son of Bal Thackeray and considered the heir apparent, was at 10 per cent.