New Delhi  - India's political parties were locked in a desperate race to woo new partners in their bid to capture the seat of power in New Delhi Friday, a day ahead of the counting in general elections that are projected to return a fractured verdict.

Exit polls have predicted that no party had won a majority in the 545-seat Parliament's Lok Sabha, or House of the People, which meant that a weak coalition of parties was likely to form the next government.

Most surveys put the United Progressive Alliance led by the Indian National Congress ahead of the rival National Democratic Alliance headed by the Bhartiya Janata Party.

The Congress and the BJP, both main national parties, were engaged in backroom talks with smaller, regional parties that were driving a hard bargain for high-profile ministries in return for their support in forming the new government.

"Political alliances will always be based on the political relevance, longevity (of the new government) and give and take ... what we are going to get in bargain. So, it will be a deal," Amar Singh, leader of the regional Samajwadi Party, who held talks with Congress leaders, told reporters.

Local media outlets said while UPA was confident of bringing the SP into its fold, the BJP was making efforts to win the support of the Bahujan Samaj Party, representing Dalit or lower-caste voters.

Political analysts said it was clear that both the NDA and UPA needed to bring in allies with significant seat share to hold any hope of coming to power.

The major political formations were working overtime to hammer out an alliance to reach the majority figure of 272 in the parliament which must be constituted by June 2.

The BJP's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani held a meeting in the morning to discuss the strategy of the NDA to rope in post-poll allies.

Key BJP strategist Arun Jaitely and senior party leaders like M Venkaiah Naidu were also tasked with wooing regional parties like the Telgu Desam Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagam.

The Congress was also slated to convene a meeting on Friday evening but senior leaders like Pranab Mukherjee were already holding individual meetings with other regional parties separately.

The vote counting is to begin at 8 am (0230 GMT) Saturday, three days after the end of the month-long polling.

The exercise will take place at 4,260 counting halls in 1,080 centres across the country and would be managed by nearly 60,000 personnel, the Election Commission said.

"The broad trends will be clear by 1 pm and the bulk of the results should be in by 4 pm," commission spokesman Rajesh Malhotra said.

After the counting of votes, the focus will fall on Indian President Pratibha Patil.

With a hung parliament widely expected, Patil has three options - invite the single-largest party, invite the single largest pre-poll alliance or third, invite the largest post-poll formation.

President Patil, who is already consulting constitutional experts, may have stability of the new government as the yardstick and opt for the third option while insisting that parties produce letters of support, the CNN-IBN network reported.

The Indian elections, the world's largest democratic exercise, saw a turnout of 428 million or 60 per cent of the total registered electorate of 714 million.

Although the conduct of the polls was largely successful, nearly 50 people lost their lives during the staggered five-stage polling, a majority of them in Maoist violence.(dpa)