A national opinion poll conducted by a television channel has predicted 215 to 235 seats for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and 165 to 185 seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.

The predicted range is similar to the results of the last general elections held in 2004 when the UPA had 222 seats while the NDA had 189.

The poll, conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies for CNN-IBN, has predicted that the UPA alliance will have a vote share of 36.6 per cent while the NDA combine will cobble up 29.4 per cent votes.

The poll, which was conducted amongst 20,000 respondents in major states, also forecasts that the vote percentage for Left parties will slip to six per cent as against the eight per cent of the share it had in the 2004 general elections. According to the poll, pre-poll alliances hold the key to power for both the national alliances of UPA and NDA.

The opinion poll has also said that while both the Congress and the BJP will gain in their vote percentage as compared to the last general elections, their respective allies will suffer losses in vote share. While the Congress' allies will see a drop of 3.4 per cent votes from 10.1 per cent in 2004 to 6.7 per cent, BJP's allies will secure 7.1 per cent votes, a drop of 6.6 per cent since the last Lok Sabha polls, the survey said.

The BJP is projected to secure 22.3 per cent of the total votes covered in the opinion poll and the Congress is said to secure 29.9 per cent. The survey also suggests that while the 'majority of Congress' gains are coming from an 8 per cent gain amongst the Hindu upper castes ... the BJP enjoys dominant support from the rural and urban rich classes'.