Sharon's office leaked the polls on Friday as part of a campaign to gain support for the proposed 2005 budget from 13 Likud holdouts who have threatened to vote against it because of the disengagement law. Failure to pass the budget by March 31 would force new elections.
The poll claimed that the Likud party led by Sharon would win 44 seats in the Knesset if elections were held today. The same polls awarded Netanyahu only 21 seats. The Likud now has 40 MKs in the Knesset, including two who merged from Natan Sharansky's Israel B'Aliyah faction.
"Whoever makes this claim is a liar who is deceiving the public," said an aide to Finance Minister Netanyahu. "This is simply nonsense. There is no way that a party headed by Sharon...would muster 44 mandates."
Netanyahu has called on all Likud MKs to support the budget despite his own demand that a national referendum be held on the issue.
If the budget bill is presented as a vote in confidence for the government, it must gain an absolute majority of 61 votes, which Sharon cannot muster without support from Likud holdouts or Knesset members from the opposition Shas, Shinui or Arab parties, all of which have said they will vote against. Sharon recently has met with the Arab factions in an effort to win their support.
If the bill is not presented as vote of confidence, most observers as well as Sharon aides have said that expected abstentions of several opposition MKs would give the government a majority.
The poll claimed that the Likud party led by Sharon would win 44 seats in the Knesset if elections were held today. The same polls awarded Netanyahu only 21 seats. The Likud now has 40 MKs in the Knesset, including two who merged from Natan Sharansky's Israel B'Aliyah faction.
"Whoever makes this claim is a liar who is deceiving the public," said an aide to Finance Minister Netanyahu. "This is simply nonsense. There is no way that a party headed by Sharon...would muster 44 mandates."
Netanyahu has called on all Likud MKs to support the budget despite his own demand that a national referendum be held on the issue.
If the budget bill is presented as a vote in confidence for the government, it must gain an absolute majority of 61 votes, which Sharon cannot muster without support from Likud holdouts or Knesset members from the opposition Shas, Shinui or Arab parties, all of which have said they will vote against. Sharon recently has met with the Arab factions in an effort to win their support.
If the bill is not presented as vote of confidence, most observers as well as Sharon aides have said that expected abstentions of several opposition MKs would give the government a majority.