India's politically most powerful state, Uttar Pradesh, held a final day of state elections today in a test of the national government as it grapples with a military standoff with Pakistan.
Exit polls have suggested the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which dominates the ruling national coalition, is likely to lose its controlling position in the state assembly, denting its credibility although not threatening its position.
Even before voting ended, political analysts were predicting a protracted bout of coalition haggling, with neither the BJP, nor its main challenger, the regional Samajwadi Party, likely to win enough seats to form a state government on their own.
"We are going to see members of the assembly bought and sold," said former prime minister V.P. Singh. "Horse-trading has been rampant in Uttar Pradesh in the past," he told reporters.
Home to 166 million people, Uttar Pradesh, on the fertile Gangetic plain, is the heartland of Hindu India and traditional power base for the BJP, which rose to power on a Hindu nationalist platform.