Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could be crushed by an Opposition alliance in the country's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in a general election, which is due by May, according to an opinion poll released on January 23.

The India Today-Karvy Insights Mood of the Nation opinion poll forecast that the number of seats held by Modi's BJP and an ally could plummet to just 5 from the 73 it won in the last election in 2014 if most of the opposition parties, including the Congress party, team up to take on Modi.

That would mean they would have to agree on only one opposition candidate to fight the BJP in each constituency.

A recently formed alliance between three regional parties in the state could win 58 seats without Congress joining it, the poll showed. BJP and its ally would win 18 seats in that scenario and Congress would have 4.

Uttar Pradesh sends 80 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha, the most for any state in India.

A total of 2,478 people were polled in Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of about 220 million, for the survey.