A 'Mood of the Nation' poll conducted for India Today by ORG-MARG predicts a sweep for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the coming Lok Sabha election, giving the ruling coalition 330 to 340 seats in the 545-member House.
The poll, conducted in January before the BJP tied up with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, forecasts a slide for the Congress, which is expected to get 105 to 115 seats, around 30 less than its tally in the last election.
'Others', including the Left Front, AIADMK, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, have been projected to get between 95 and 105 seats.
The NDA secured 304 seats in the 1999 election.
The poll covered 17,649 voters in 98 parliamentary constituencies. In each constituency the poll sampled three assembly segments based on random sampling. The sample was representative of urban and rural areas, men and women and all age groups. The sampling was done between January 9 and 17.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's high popularity rating is the NDA's biggest advantage.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi's biggest handicaps in becoming PM, according to the poll, include her foreign origin, political inexperience and lack of support from within her party.