'Our vote share is going to increase significantly in Uttar Pradesh too,' a senior Congress leader said. 'But due to multi-cornered contests, it is not clear how much of this could be translated into seats.'

The situation is similar in Bihar, where the Congress may not improve its tally it won three seats in 2004  but it hopes to regain lost ground in several areas.

The BJP is reportedly consolidating its position marginally in Bihar although its ally, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), is likely to make major gains at the cost of Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which won 22 seats in 2004.

The BJP and the JD-U had respectively won five and six seats in the polls five years ago.

In Maharashtra, where polling has concluded in 38 of the 48 seats, the Congress expects to at least retain or possibly better marginally its 2004 tally of 13 seats.

The BJP's assessment is that its alliance with the Shiv Sena would help it improve upon its previous performance when it won 13 seats.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Congress is struggling to retain its hold on both assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.

'The TDP-TRS alliance is formidable but we are hoping to retain a decent number of seats. The picture is, however, not clear because Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam Party has led to multi-cornered contests,' another Congress leader said. None of these leaders wanted to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media by the party.

The Congress had performed very well in Andhra Pradesh in 2004, winning 29 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats.