ABP News-CVoter Poll: Setback to BJP-led NDA as clear majority seems unlikely, hung Lok Sabha predicted

NEW DELHI: The nation's political arena is engulfed in an intense battle as the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are just a couple of months away. The political think tanks of mainstream parties are busy crafting cutting edge strategies to outdo their opponents and form the best possible alliances. After romping home to power by securing a thumping majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) witnessed a spree of wins in the state assembly elections, expanding its presence in the Southern and Eastern region besides holding fort its traditionally strong Hindi Heartland. The icing on the cake was registering  a landslide win in Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand, the Congress witnessed a massive decline suffering defeats to the BJP in most of the big states. However, in the last two years, the Congress has regained lost ground by securing a hattrick of wins in the states  of Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Chattisgarh. The dynamics in the election battlefield has witnessed a massive transformation with new alliances being stitched and what seemed like a one sided affair tilted towards Modi's favour looks like a evenly contested battle as we draw close to the elections. The ABP-C Voter poll survey which was conducted pan India to gauge the mood of the voter has projected a hung Lok Sabha in the upcoming general elections  as neither the NDA nor the UPA is likely to attain a clear majority of winning 272 parliamentary seats to form the government in the Centre. As per the survey, BJP-led NDA is likely to win 233 out of the 543 seats, while the Congress led UPA is expected to clinch 167 seats, while the others are expected to win 143 seats. The survey projection a big set back to the ruling NDA coalition as they seem to be well short of the magical 272 mark to form the government in the Centre. While the UPA has gained major ground, they too seem far away from the majority mark. If we do an in depth analysis into the survey, the BJP has lost massive ground in its traditionally strong Hindi heartland bastion of Uttar Pradesh. It is set to suffer a massive dent in Uttar Pradesh as the newly formed BSP-SP alliance is set to win 51 out of the 80 seats. There is some positive news for the NDA coalition in Bihar where the Modi and Nitish Kumar magic has kept the voters lured to the saffron party. The BJP-JDU alliance is expected to sweep the polls winning 35 out of the 40 seats. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress emerged as the runway leader winning 34 of the 42 seats. BJP which was a non existent force  in the state has made inroads winning 7 seats. Meanwhile, the Communist party of India which was a formidable force, seems to have lost steam.  In Odissa, out of the 21 seats, 12 seats are expected to be won the BJP while its former ally the Biju Janta Dall is likely to bag 12 seats. The Western region shall witness a pitched battle between BJP and Congress. In Modi's saffron bastion Gujarat, the PM's charisma remains intact with the voters as the BJP is expected to win 24 of the 26 seats. Despite the major setback in the recently held State Assembly elections in Rajasthan , and Madhya Pradesh, BJP led NDA looks to be in commanding position, winning 18 out of the 25 seats in Rajasthan. Meanwhile UPA which secured a thumping victory in the recently held state assembly polls is likely to win 7 seats. However, Maharashtra seems to be going the Congress way with 28 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats going to the UPA. The BJP- Shiv Sena alliance is a distant second second with 20 seats. In MP, BJP is the seems to be the preferred choice for the voter as they are expected to win 23 out of the 29 Lok Sabha seats. In the northern states, Congress seems to have a stronghold in Punjab, sweeping the state with wins in 12 of the 13 LS seats while BJP is set to surge ahead in Haryana, winning 7 of the 10 parliamentary constituencies. In Southern India, where BJP is making desperate efforts to make inroads seems to be going the United Progressive Alliance way. Out of the 129 seats, UPA has emerged as the front runner winning 69 seats while the Dravidian parties continue to be a force in the region winning 46 seats. In North Eastern India, the BJP seems to have gained massive ground and is expected to win 14 seats while the Congress led UPA has seen a downfall, managing to only garner 9 seats. The CVoter Tracker is carried out each and every week, 52 waves in a calendar year, in 11 national languages, across all States in UTs in India. All our polls are based on a random probability sample as used in the globally standardized methodology, carried out by trained researchers across all geographic and demographic segments. This survey is based on CATI interviews of adult (18+) respondents across all segments. The data is weighted to known census profile Release Date: 24th January2019 Desh Ka Mood - Poll Sample Size: 22309 Desh ka Mood - Poll Fieldwork: 3rd Week December 2018 to 3rd Week January 2018 Sample spread: ALL 543 Lok Sabha seats across ALL states MoE: +/- 3% at macro level and +/- 5% at micro level @ Confidence interval: 95%