Lucknow | March 29, 2004 10:39:28 AM IST

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Sunday expressed doubts over opinion polls saying they should be carefully considered. 

"I have also seen the survey. The survey should be taken into consideration only after careful thinking," Vajpayee told reporters on his arrival in Lucknow for a public rally.

An opinion poll, published by a leading national newspaper on Saturday predicted an easy win for Vajpayee's ruling BJP in national elections beginning next month.

Indian Express said the Congress Party, led by Sonia Gandhi, could slump to its lowest-ever numbers in parliament. Two earlier polls said Vajpayee would lead the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)- led coalition to a comfortable victory riding on strong economic growth, rapprochement with Pakistan and his personal popularity. Since coming to power at the head of a coalition comprising secular regional parties, the BJP has set aside its hardline Hindu agenda that helped bring it into the political mainstream in the 1990s.

The BJP-led coalition is campaigning on a platform of development and good governance and will win between 287-307 seats in the 543-member lower house of parliament, more than the 272 required to rule, the Express said. The grand old Congress party, whose chief Sonia Gandhi has been consistently targeted for her foreign origins could, along with its allies, take 143 to 163 seats, the poll conducted by A.C. Nielsen for the Indian Express and NDTV said.

The BJP-led coalition controlled 303 seats in the last parliament and the Congress-led alliance had 140. The Congress on its own is forecast to win 90 to 100 seats, according to the new poll, an all-time low. The party won 114 seats in the last election.

The Indian Express said the survey carried out earlier this month covered more than 45,000 voters spread across 207 key constituencies in the country.

But opinion polls in India, where about 670 million people are eligible to vote, have had a mixed record in the past.

Most polls failed to predict big wins for the BJP in key state elections in December which prompted the ruling coalition to bring forward national elections not due until October.

The elections will be held in stages from April 20 to May 10 with a result expected on May 13.

Meanwhile, low-caste regional Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati said her party would fight elections alone.

"The upper caste people have strengthened the communal forces, not the backward caste people. That is why we are going to fight the elections alone," Mayawati told a public rally in Jammu. The BSP has wide influence in Uttar Pradesh, which sends the maximum 80 lawmakers to parliament.

Mayawati twice formed government in Uttar Pradesh with support from the BJP. But both the experiments failed, the latest collapsing last year after she quit following a scam involving construction of a corridor around Taj Mahal.

Meanwhile, actress-social activist-turned-politician Nafisa Ali kicked off her campaign in North Calcutta constituency. Ali, a Congress candidate, would take on hugely-popular regional Mamata Banerjee, chief of Trinamul Congress, an ally of the BJP. Ali came down heavily on the BJP calling it communal. "Where do we want to be? Do we want to join a secular national government or do we want a communal force which the BJP has proved to be after the Gujarat riots and non-justice to the victims. Non-removal of Narendra Modi is an example of dictatorship of the BJP," said Ali.

Ali won the Miss India title in 1978. (ANI) 

Source: WebIndia123.com