New Delhi, April 26
The decision of the Congress to forge alliances in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh seems to have paid dividends with exit polls conducted by various TV channels predicting major gains in these two states for the party after the second phase of polling today.

At the same time the BJP-led NDA could end up few seats short of the half-way mark of 272 in the 543-member Parliament.

According to Aaj Tak Hindi channel, the NDA is likely to get 144 seats out of the 276 seats polls for which have been conducted so far, which is down by 28 seats vis-a-vis 1999. The Congress on the other hand seems to have gained significantly with the channel projecting a tally of 100 seats for the party and its allies. This is 31 seats higher than the 1999 tally of the Congress.

Overall, Aaj Tak has projected that the Congress and its allies would get 177 seats, while the NDA’s tally would be 262 and others would get 104.

Star News predicted that the NDA would get between 267 and 279 parliamentary seats.

Star News showed that the Congress and its allies would get 160-172 and gave 97-109 to others, including the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The exit poll of Sahara News, which covered the 282 seats that have gone to the polls so far, projected 155 seats for the NDA, 99 for the Congress and the rest for others.

Of the 136 seats that went to the polls today, the BJP would get 68-80 seats, the Congress 38-50 and others 12-24, Star News said.

The projections made by Headlines Today, the English channel of the India Today group, showed that the anti-incumbency factor was at work in Andhra Pradesh, ruled by Telugu Desam, with the Congress likely to bag 31 along with its ally the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.

The TDP and the BJP together would get 10 seats.