Schools, offices and banks were shut in India?s Jharkhand state yesterday as the national opposition called a strike to protest against what it sees as its wrongful exclusion from power following a state election.

The election produced a hung assembly in the eastern state, with the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the largest party.

But instead of calling the BJP to try and form a government, the governor swore in an ally of the ruling Congress party-led federal government, triggering an uproar.

Media has criticised Governor Sibtey Razi, himself a member of the Congress and appointed by New Delhi, for bias. ?Governor Razi?s actions carry the unmistakable stamp of a command job, and it is deplorable the (Congress-led) United Progressive Alliance could not resist the temptation of fixing the post-election match,? the Hindu said in an editorial.

The BJP, which lost power to the Congress at the national level in a general election last year, also stalled parliamentary proceedings in New Delhi on Wednesday and yesterday in protest.