The term of the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly ends on 26 March 2017, and the Election Commission of India is expected to announce the election schedule for the state shortly. Voting will take place in all 70 Assembly seats, and early opinion polls point in very different directions.

How opinion polls work

Parties in Uttarakhand are busy with their strategies, and interest in polls is high, with many people looking them up on social media. News channels and survey agencies are polling across all 70 constituencies to judge which party is strong where and whose chances are rising or falling.

Surveyors visit each seat and talk to residents about local politics, development, problems and the conduct of the sitting MLA, before asking whom they intend to vote for. Parties use the results to decide where to concentrate their campaigning. Some surveys have predicted results accurately in the past, boosting the reputation of the channels that ran them.

What the surveys show

One survey pointed to a close contest:

• Indian National Congress: 32
• Bharatiya Janata Party: 31
• Bahujan Samaj Party: 3
• Independents: 3
• Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P): 1

A second news survey forecast a landslide, with the BJP on 63 seats and the Congress on 7, out of 70.

What happened next

In the 2017 Uttarakhand Assembly election the BJP won 57 seats and the Congress 11. Trivendra Singh Rawat became Chief Minister.

See also: Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha members and upcoming elections.

Originally published on 2 August 2016. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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