NEW DELHI, May 9: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will seek to form the nation's next government even if his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) does not get the required majority in the Lok Sabha when the long drawn elections end on Monday , analysts and politicians said.

According to exit polls after the third phase of the elections on May 5, and subsequent opinion polls predicting the trend for the last 182 seats in the fray on Monday, the NDA may fall short of majority up to 30 seats. But Mr. Vajpayee's Hindu revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely tipped to emerge as the largest single party.

Part of the script has already been written on behalf of Mr Vajpayee by the stock markets, which were seen as plunging every time predictions indicated losses for the ruling NDA but improved whenever the prime minister's electoral fortunes soared.

Given the fact that a few privately owned TV companies are listed on the bourses, including one which staged a shares offer right in the middle of the polls, they too would prefer to hitch their wagon to the party that boosts their stock.

"Unless the NDA is short by more than 60 seats, Mr Vajpayee is going to stake his claim to form the government," a source close to a business house with a crucial role in the new government told Dawn.

The Outlook magazine quoted a senior official in Mr Vajpayee's party as saying he would form the next government even if he got 240 seats. As India braced for the last leg of the polls, there were murmurs that the NDA could even get a simple majority.

If the NDA gets fewer than 272, but more than the Congress led front, it would woo outside support from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.