Lok Sabha Election 2024: Opinion poll predicts 342 seats for BJP, lowest-ever tally for Congress

Lok Sabha elections are scheduled to be held in 7 phases from April 19. The results will be declared on June 4. (File Photo: PTI)

Lok Sabha polls 2024: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party is on track to win a third term in power at the Centre with recent opinion poll surveys predicting a clear win in the coming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held from April 19. The findings of the survey show little impact of the Opposition’s much-hyped INDIA bloc, with the projections showing the grouping likely to be restricted to 94 seats.

The findings of the survey show the Congress heading towards a repeat of its 2019 performance, possibly settling at its lowest-ever tally of 38 seats. The party had won 52 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and improved marginally from 44 seats that it won in the 2014 elections.

The India TV-CNX Opinion Poll shows the BJP winning 342 seats, Congress 38, Trinamool Congress 19, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) at 18, Janata Dal (United) at 14, Aam Aadmi Party at 6, Samajwadi Party 3 and Others at 91.

In a telling prediction for the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, the survey shows Congress drawing a blank while the BJP may improve its tally to 73 seats while its allies, the RLD and Apna Dal (S) are expected to bag two seats each.

In neighbouring Bihar, where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the key architect of the INDIA bloc switched sides to the NDA, the Congress is projected to win only one seat. The BJP, on the other hand, is expected to win 17 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state while the JD(U) is expected to bag 12 seats, the survey predicts.

The BJP is also projected to register comfortable victories in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Uttarakhand. Crucially, the BJP is also expected to improve its tally in West Bengal from 18 in the 2019 polls to 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the coming elections. As per the survey, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress may settle at 19 seats.

Among other regional parties, the survey projects DMK winning 18 seats in Tamil Nadu and 11 seats for the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha. The opinion poll was conducted in all 543 constituencies between March 1 and 30, and the total number of respondents was 1,79,190. These include 91,100 males and 88,090 females.