A political party with a strong mandate in the state will form the next government in Uttarakhand.
Key points:The state assembly elections are due in three weeksThe opposition will be led by an alliance of seven partiesIt is the first time a party with at least 30% of the vote has been allowed to form the state government since the mid-1990sThe opposition alliance, headed by the Congress, is led by former state chief minister Jitendra Singh who had earlier quit the party in protest against the government’s economic reforms.
Mr Singh, who has been an outspoken critic of the government, has said he will not join any alliance with the Congress and has also threatened to quit the state assembly.
The Congress is the largest party in the assembly with almost 50% of seats, followed by the All India Progressive Alliance (AIPA), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hindu Mahasabha, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance of Bihar (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance.
It is expected that the BJP and the AIPA will form a coalition government with the BJP to form a minority government.
But the alliance will need the support of the other opposition parties to get through the first round of elections.
“The Congress-Congress alliance will form an alliance to form government.
But the alliance cannot be formed with the support from the BJP,” Mr Singh said in an interview with the BBC on Sunday.
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is expected to make an appeal to voters at the party’s rally in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
The next election is scheduled for November 16.
The election is the biggest test yet for the new government as it has yet to be formed and its members have yet to officially be sworn in.