No alliance will reach 272 mark: Poll survey

None of the political alliances will make it to the magical figure of 272 required to form the government after the Lok Sabha elections, even as the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will get 203 seats, according to a survey conducted by TV channel Star News.
A statement by the channel Saturday said both the UPA and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would have to look for partners outside their respective coalitions.
The survey, conducted jointly with pollster Nielsen, gives 191 seats to the NDA and 104 to the Third Front comprising the Left parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and others.
The survey predicts that the Congress, on its own, would win 155 seats followed by the BJP with 147.
The statement said the so-called fourth front consisting of Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) would get 39 seats, while others would win six.
The survey, conducted March 26-April 3, took a sample size of 50,400 voters spread over 224 constituencies across all the states.
This was the second opinion poll by Star-Nielsen. The first had predicted that the ruling UPA coalition would get 257 seats, including those won by the Samajwadi Party, RJD and LJP, who are now going to the polls independently of the Congress.
The earlier survey gave the NDA 184 seats.