A neck and neck race is expected between ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance and Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine in next month's Maharashtra assembly polls in Vidarbha, Marathawada and North Maharasthra regions, an NDTV-Indian Express opinion poll on Thursday night said.

The poll carried out in 150 seats in the three regions covering 100 constituencies and 29,763 voters showed Congress-NCP getting 75 seats and the saffron alliance bagging 73 seats.

In Marathawada, Congress-NCP is shown as having gained getting 26 of the 48 assembly seats with BJP-Sena alliance securing only 22. But the latter is projected to do very well in North Maharasthra getting 24 of the 36 assembly seats.

In Vidharbha, Congress-NCP is predicted to forge ahead comfortably bagging 38 of the 66 seats while Sena-BJP is projected to get 27.