Most of the television polls broadcast after Wednesday's fourth and penultimate round of India's marathon parliamentary vote put the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) some four to nine seats adrift of the 272 majority needed to form a government.

One poll, however, said the alliance, led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), would cruise in with up to 282 seats, while at the opposite end of the scale another said it would fall short by 27 seats.

The election is being held in five phases, with 361 of the 543 parliamentary seats up for grabs already having been contested. Voting in the remaining 182 constituencies will take place in the biggest round yet on May 10. Results are expected on May 13.

"Most of the television exit polls have not yet given the BJP-led coalition 200 seats in the four rounds of voting already held," said Yogendra Yadav, a political analyst.

"It will be really surprising if they get more than 80 seats needed for a majority, in the last round. If they fall short, then the wheeling-dealing will begin," he said.

The BJP's key ally in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the Telegu Desam Party headed by Chandrababu Naidu, appeared to have suffered a huge defeat, according to the television polls.

Analysts said that the party's allies in key states of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in Monday's last round of polls appear to be in a weak position.

"It will be a real challenge as the BJP-led coalition will need to pick up 50 percent of the seats (91). Last time, it was the BJP's best-ever performance and they picked up 82 seats," said Yadav.

The BJP's general secretary Pramod Mahajan told reporters Wednesday the party was open to tying up with some additional smaller parties in order to muster the magical number of 272 seats.

"Though we are confident of gaining a clear majority in the next parliament, we could take help from smaller political parties in case we fall short by a few seats," he said.

A western diplomat said that if the exit polls trends are confirmed on Monday and the BJP falls short of an absolute majority by some 10-20 seats, making up the shortfall could be politically costly.

"They could have to pay a high price to some very small parties which could demand five ministries each even though they don't represent a substantial segment of the electorate," he said.

The Hindustan Times daily said in an editorial that a hung parliament scenario "would be terribly unfortunate" as the small parties could desert the government as soon as the political weather turned rough.