Hung assembly in UP, AAP win in Punjab: India TV-CVoter

Uttar Pradesh is expected to throw up a hung assembly while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to take power in Punjab, an India TV-CVoter exit poll said on Thursday.

Uttarakhand is also tipped to get hung assembly while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could edge out the Congress in both Goa and Manipur, the exit poll findings said.

Elections in the five states took place between February 4 and March 8.

Both the BJP and the Samajwadi Party-Congress combine were locked in a close contest in Uttar Pradesh and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will come third, it said.

The BJP could get 155-167 seats, the Samajwadi-Congress alliance 135-147 seats and the BSP 81-93 seats. The majority mark in the 403-member state assembly is 202 seats.

The BJP is projected to get 33.4 per cent of all votes followed by the SP-Congress (32.3), the BSP (24.3) and 'Others' 10 per cent.

In Punjab, the AAP is projected to form a government winning 59 to 67 of the 117 assembly seats, it said.

The Congress could come second with 41-49 seats and the ruling Akali Dal-BJP combine was projected to finish with just 5-13 seats.

In Uttarakhand, both the BJP and Congress were neck and neck and may fall short of majority, the exit polls said.

The two parties could win 29-35 seats in the 70-member assembly, it said.

Goa may get a hung assembly, but the BJP was expected to win 15-21 seats, the Congress and its allies 12-18 and the AAP 0-4 seats.

In Manipur, the BJP is projected to win within a range of 25-31 of the 60 seats in the assembly, with the ruling Congress trailing at 17-23, it said.

--IANS

mr/vd/sar