Regional parties will hold key in 2014: Poll

Regional parties, expected to get as many as 240 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 election, will be a key factor in deciding who gets to rule Delhi, said a survey Wednesday.

The India TV-Times Now-C Voter survey showed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gaining a winning edge over the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

According to the survey, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA would improve its 2009 tally of 159 to 186 in 2014, the Congress-led UPA will slide from 259 to 117.

Regional parties like the AIADMK, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Left Front, Trinamool Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), YSR Congress and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) would hold the key to power at the centre.

The survey projected 35 percent vote share for the NDA against 27 percent for the UPA and 38 percent for the regional parties.

The survey included the BJP, Shiv Sena, Akali Dal, RPI (Athawale), Nationalist People's Party of Meghalaya and Haryana Janhit Congress in the BJP-led NDA.

It counted the UPA as the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Muslim League, National Conference and Kerala Congress (Mani).

Partywise detail shows the Congress tally tumbling from 206 seats in 2009 to just 102 in 2014. The BJP, which won 116 seats in 2009, is projected to get 162 seats.

The survey says the Left Front may win 32 seats, BSP 31, AIADMK 28, SP 25, Trinamool 23 and RJD 14. In Andhra Pradesh, YSR Congress and TRS may capture 13 seats.

Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United, which won 20 seats in 2009, is projected to get only nine seats.

In Tamil Nadu, the opposition DMK's tally is estimated to come down from 18 to five.