BJD, TRS, YSRCP to be key to government formation: Survey

New Delhi: Telangana’s TRS, Andhra Pradesh’s YSR Congress and Odisha’s BJD are likely to hold the key in government formation after election results of the seven phase Lok Sabha elections are out on May 23.

According to a CVoter-IANS opinion poll, the National Democratic Alliance is predicted to get only 264 seats, falling eight short of the half-way mark of 272 to form the government while the UPA – led by the Congress – can get only 141 seats.

The survey predicted that the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh may get 47 seats and it is unlikely to support a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Telugu Desam Party, led by Chandrababu Naidu, which is playing a major role to unite the opposition parties against the BJP-led government, is likely to win 14 seats. West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress, whose chief Mamata Banerjee has also taken the lead to forge a mahagathbandhan against the ruling dispensation, may get 34 seats.

The CVoter-IANS opinion poll has predicted that the three parties — the YSR Congress Party, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) — can win 36 seats. Out of them, the YSRCP is expected to get 11 in Andhra Pradesh, the BJD may win 9 in Odisha and the TRS is likely to sweep Telangana (16 out of 17 seats).

As the three parties has still been maintaing equidistance with the BJP and the Congress, they are likely to play a decisive role in government formation.

The support from any of these three parties would not only take the NDA past the majority point but also will help it in reaching a comfortable majority.

While the principal fight in the Lok Sabha battle 2019 remains between Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA and Rahul Gandhi-led UPA, the third block of non-BJP and non-Congress regional parties will have a major say in deciding the next government.

Within the NDA, the Janata Dal-United and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Bihar are expected to win 20 seats while the Shiv Sena is going to emerge another dominant partner with 14 seats.

The Sena, which has been one of the most vocal critics of the Modi government, is expected to lose four seats.

IANS