New Delhi: It looks like a mixed bag for the Congress in the upcoming Assembly polls in Punjab and Uttarakhand. In the latest STAR News-Nielsen Opinion Poll, while Congress is getting majority in Punjab with 63 seats in the house of 117, Akali Dal-BJP alliance is getting only 53 seats. In Uttarakhand, the ruling BJP is retaining power with 39 seats while Congress is getting 29 seats in the house of 70.

In Punjab, Congress is crossing the 59-seat mark while BJP-SAD combine, that has 68 seats, is dropping out. In vote share, Congress is getting 44 per cent votes while the BJP-SAD alliance is getting 42 per cent votes. Sukhbir Singh Badal's cousin Manpreet, who has launched his separate outfit People's Party of Punjab, is winning one seat. Despite Mayawati's aggressive last-minute campaigning, BSP is failing to open its account.

The survey, conducted by STAR News-Nielsen, was done from January 4 to 16 2012 across 59 constituencies with a total sample size of 10,612 respondents.

In Uttarakhand, where BJP had 35 seats in the outgoing house, is increasing its tally to 39. This is against expectations that the party would do badly in face of serious charges of corruption against the government and the party had to replace the chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank with Gen BS Khanduri. Though Congress is getting only 29 seats, it is still up from its last time's tally of 21.

Critical, however, is the vote share where BJP is ahead of Congress by only 1 per cent - 40 per cent to 39 per cent and even a slight swing could impact the final results.

The survey, conducted by STAR News-Nielsen, was done from 4 Jan to 18 Jan 2012 across 35 constituencies with a total sample size of 6143 respondents.

Both states go to polls simultaneously on 30 Jan 2012.

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