NEW DELHI: The BJP and its allies are set to win a narrow majority in the world’s largest democratic election, the latest opinion poll showed yesterday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, led by prime-ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi, and its allies have until now been forecast to win the largest chunk of the 543 parliamentary seats but fall short of the 272-seat mark needed for a majority. That would force them to seek a coalition with some of India’s increasingly powerful regional parties.
But a poll for the private news channel NDTV showed the BJP and its allies winning a narrow majority of 275 seats. That would be an increase of 16 seats since the last NDTV poll a little over a week ago. The ruling Congress party and its allies were forecast to win just 111 parliamentary seats in the poll.
The latest NDTV-Hansa Research opinion poll surveyed voters in over 350 parliamentary constituencies and had a margin of error or plus or minus 2 percent. An opinion poll earlier this month by the CNN-IBN news channel and the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, one of India’s most trusted polling groups, gave between 234 and 246 seats to the BJP and its allies.
Reuters
