New Delhi : The BJP and its allies are projected to bag 275 Lok Sabha seats, three more than needed to form the government, while the Congress and its partners are set to win just 111 seats, according to a new poll survey released.

Dressed in a veshti and shirt,BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi waves to supporters at an election rally in Chennai.
The BJP alone is set to win 226 seats, the party’s strongest performance ever and a dramatic improvement from the two it won in 1984.

The Congress, which has ruled the country for the past 10 years, has never dipped below 100 seats, but the poll by NDTV Hansa Research projects that it will win only 92 seats.

Even with its allies, the Congress is projected to bag 111 seats, three short of its worst solo performance of 114 seats in 1999.

The survey showed the BJP had benefited from canny last-minute alliances such as the one with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh.

Another poll by NDTV-Hansa Research in March had projected 214 seats for the BJP and 259 for the NDA.

The NDA crossing the magic figure of 272 is heavily predicated on the BJP bagging the 51 seats in Uttar Pradesh that the latest poll shows it winning.

Till now, the BJP had been projected as heading towards being the single largest party but with its alliance falling short of the majority mark. If the alliance does not reach 272 seats, it will have to seek more partners from among regional players like J. Jayalalithaa, who is expected several seats in Tamil Nadu, or Mamata Banerjee, who is projected to get a majority of the 42 seats in West Bengal.

Four phases of the Lok Sabha polls have been completed so far and there is a month and five phases of balloting still to go before votes are counted on May 16.