NEW DELHI, April 20: The Bharatiya Janata Party was ahead of the Congress party, but seemed to lose ground in the first of five rounds of the national elections on Tuesday, television projections said.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's BJP and its allies were leading the Congress by anywhere between 23 and 49 seats in the 140 constituencies that voted on Tuesday, according to surveys by three private networks.

The BJP-led coalition was defending 91 seats on Tuesday compared with 43 for the Congress and its allies, a 48-seat margin. If the prediction holds true for the next four phases of voting, the BJP would again need to form a coalition in the 545-seat parliament.

A forecast based on voter surveys by NDTV channel said the BJP-led coalition would end up with 260 to 280 seats, putting it in danger of slipping below the 273 majority needed to rule.

It said the BJP and allies would get 70 to 80 seats in the first round of voting, lower than the 90 seats it won in the same seats in the previous general election. -AFP