A survey by a television channel and a national newspaper has projected a hung Assembly in the forthcoming polls in Uttar Pradesh with arch rivals Samajawadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party running neck-and-neck.

The survey, conducted by CNN-IBN and the Indian Express newspaper, showed the SP to be in the lead with a projection of 145-155 seats followed closely by the BSP at 140-150.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is projected to win between 50-60 seats, while the Congress may have to contend with its 2002 performance with 20-30 seats, according to a release issued by the TV channel.

The survey was conducted in 305 locations spread across 79 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pardesh between March 19 to March 23. A sample of 11,060 names was drawn randomly from the electoral rolls out of which 4,998 respondents were interviewed face-to-face at their residence.

The survey claims that 30 per cent of people wanted Mulayam Singh Yadav back as the chief minister while Mayawati was again close in the race with 29 per cent.

Rahul Gandhi of the Congress was favoured by 5.5 per cent of people as the chief minister, the survey said.

However, the survey showed that the popularity graph of Gandhi had increased from 1.9 per cent in January 2006 to 5.5 per cent in March 2007.