NDA may win 326 seats, BJP 261 if Lok Sabha polls held today: India Today-CVoter MOTN

The BJP-led NDA remains comfortably ahead if Lok Sabha elections were held today, according to India Today-CVoter Mood of the Nation survey.

The August 2026 survey projects 326 seats for the NDA, down from 352 in the January edition. The BJP is projected to win 261 seats, compared with 287 six months ago.

The figures still put the alliance well above the 272-seat majority mark needed to form a government at the Centre. However, there has been a drop in the BJP's support base.

The Congress has, however, made a significant improvement in the latest survey. The party is projected to win 106 seats, up from the 80 seats forecast in January. The August 2025 edition had projected 97 seats for the Congress.

Don't Miss: From protest to reels: PM Modi's Instagram engagement jumps 290% as politics move to Gen Z's feed

The INDIA bloc is projected to win 185 seats, only marginally higher than the 182 seats predicted in January. That remains well below the 234 seats the opposition alliance won in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

BJP's projected 261 seats in the latest survey are below its previous projections of 287 in January and 297 in August 2025. However, the figure is still higher than the 240 seats the party actually won in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 240 of the 543 seats, falling short of the 272-seat majority mark on its own. The NDA, however, secured 293 seats, allowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to form his third consecutive government. The Congress won 99 seats, while the INDIA bloc won 234 seats.

Must Watch: Nitin Nabin’s New BJP Team: Experience, Youth & Women Power Take Centre Stage

BJP Faces Gen Z Challenge?

The survey comes as the BJP faces growing anger among young voters, particularly over exam paper leaks and irregularities in the education system.

Student protests at Delhi's Jantar Mantar in July eventually led to Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation as Education Minister.

The latest numbers suggest that while voter trust in the NDA remains intact, the alliance faces a challenge in addressing the Gen Z factor ahead of the 2029 elections.

How The Survey Was Conducted

The Mood of the Nation is a twice-yearly survey commissioned by the India Today Group. It has been conducted for around two decades.

The August 2026 edition was conducted by CVoter. It included 25,184 direct interviews carried out between July 1 and August 25.

The findings also drew on 91,795 interviews conducted over the previous six months as part of CVoter's regular tracking exercise.