NEWS
ANALYSIS
SPECIALS
INTERVIEW
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
CONSTITUENCY
ISSUES
GALLERY
MANIFESTOS
INDIA SPEAKS!
COUNTDOWN
CHAT
PREVIOUS RESULTS
SCHEDULE
DISCUSSION GROUP

Exit poll predicts hung assembly in Maharashtra, majority for BJP-JD(U) in Karnataka

The Nationalist Congress Party of former Union defence minister Sharad Pawar is expected to get about 65 seats in a hung Maharashtra state assembly, according to the Doordarshan exit poll.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine is expected to win 141 seats, just short of a majority in the 288-member House, followed by the Congress-Republican Party of India alliance with 78.

While 29 per cent of the voters in the state preferred to have Pawar as chief minister, 18 per cent each favoured the incumbent Narayan Rane and his deputy Gopinath Munde. Eleven per cent said they would like Maharashtra Congress chief Pratap Bhosale to be the chief minister.

Counting of the votes polled in the assembly election will be taken up on October 6.

In neighbouring Karnataka, the exit poll indicated that the ruling Janata Dal (United) and its ally, the BJP, are likely to get a majority.

According to the exit poll, the BJP-JD(U) alliance is projected to win 115 seats in the 224-member house.

The Congress is expected to get 91 seats, a gain of 56 seats over the 1994 result, followed by the Janata Dal (Secular) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and its allies with 12 and others with six.

While the BJP-JD(U) combine is estimated to have polled 41 per cent of the votes, the Congress is close behind with 39 per cent.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report