Uttar Pradesh elections 2017: Opinion polls suggests UP headed for hung assembly next year

Uttar Pradesh seems headed for a hung assembly in the next year's Assembly elections with Bahujan Samaj Party emerging as the single largest party, a opinion poll has claimed.

The "Mood of UP Survey" conducted by a monthly magazine 'Parliamentarian' says that that the ruling Samajwadi Party seem to be losing heavily by as many as 150 seats and the spoils are being shared almost equally by the BJP and the BSP, with the latter having an edge.

In the 403-member Assembly, the BSP, the survey claimed, will gain 89 seats over the 80 seats it has now and the BJP 88 over 47 currently held. The Congress may end up with 13 seats less than the 28 it had got in 2012 elections. The half-way mark for a simple majority is 203.

Referring to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the survey said 39% of the voters rate his performance as bad or very bad, while 33% rate him average. But 28% voters say his performance has been good or very good, "which suggests anti-incumbency may not be relevant in this case."

It said BSP supremo Mayawati is leading the pack with 28% of voters wanting her as the next CM. But Akhilesh is close behind with 25% of popular votes. The BJP's most popular leader seems to be Varun Gandhi who closely follows Akhilesh with 23% votes.

The magazine said the survey had a sample size 25,000 people which was carried out last month in western, eastern, Avadh and Bundelkhand regions.