David Cameron might attempt to form a minority Conservative government after the election even if he failed to secure a coalition agreement or a majority of MPs in the House of Commons, it has emerged.

Senior Conservatives have said Mr Cameron could declare victory if he gets more seats or votes than Labour on Thursday and attempt to bring forward a Queen’s Speech in the House of Commons.

This would force Labour and the SNP to combine and vote down the Tories’ legislative agenda.

In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Andrew Hawkins (ComRes) “The sclerotic, negative and risk-averse campaigns from the two main parties make it hard to see how much can alter. So, my prediction is the same – Tories get most votes, but Labour better placed to form a government. Then a long spell of political and perhaps constitutional chaos.” Andrew Hawkins In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Joe Twyman (YouGov) “‘The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.’ So begins the film version of Lord of the Rings. – which is, of course, the famous tale of an epic journey culminating in the final battle between good and evil. The world of British politics has certainly changed. “With a few days still to go I expect that more change could still occur, but it is likely to be minor and the national level and more concentrated on the ground in the key marginal constituencies where the Hold Your Nose or Cut It Off to Spite Your Face™ message pushes home. I expect the Conservatives to be the beneficiaries, but it will not be anything like enough to make a difference to the overall result.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Ben Page (Ipsos MORI) “As the only pollster to correctly predict a hung parliament last time – and then foolishly change my prediction when I saw ALL the others were saying a Conservative majority – I am going to say hung parliament again. With more Conservative than Labour seats. The SNP won’t wipe out the Labour Party completely in Scotland but will get them down to single figures. The Lib Dems will out perform their poll numbers and should get circa 26 seats – or more. Ukip will be delighted with four seats at most, probably fewer.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Rick Nye (Populus) “Tories largest party, comfortably.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Nick Moon (GfK) “SNP now 50, Ukip 2; Tories to be largest party in votes and seats, but still a Labour minority government.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Damian Lyons Lowe (Survation) “Conservatives – I’m upgrading my seats prediction to 270-280 from 260-280. Labour – downgrading again to 265-275, based on the SNPs’ continued surge and Conservatives doing better in our seat-voting question as the election draws near and views are localised: SNP 45; Lib Dems 30; Ukip 6; Green 1; Respect 1. Ed Miliband will be the next prime minister.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Michelle Harrison (TNS) “We enter the last few days of this campaign pretty much where we started. This election represents what happens when a country is not confident about its economic future, unsure of its place in the world, and fed up with the state of its politics. “The political stalemate at the centre, and the fragmentation of the traditional party system, has left us with a set of polls incapable of telling what will ultimately happen, when there are so many potential scenarios. What we can feel confident about though is that Thursday will be a seismic night for politics in Scotland. When the votes are counted, we expect the Tories to be the largest party, but that Labour should still have the greatest chance of forming a government. But how do we measure the advantage for the Conservatives of already being in No 10 in the days after the general election? The real drama will start on Friday.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 James Endersby (Opinium Research) “We saw some movement to the Tories, but the two big parties are back to being neck and neck with the Conservatives a hair’s breadth ahead. How this translates into seats or a coalition is unclear but based on our numbers we’d put the Conservatives ahead of Labour on vote share but the two parties within 10 seats of each other in the new House of Commons. The maths here gives Ed Miliband more options than David Cameron, so it might be sensible for voters to look up Ramsay MacDonald when trying to make sense of the result!” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Martin Boon (ICM) “The Tories appear to have developed a little momentum, which may or may not make any difference. I sense the now traditional herding of pollsters has begun, and the polls will coalesce around a Tory lead of between two and six points. I’ll guess at 36 per cent for the Tories and 32 per cent for Labour. The fight for third place could go either way. Beyond that I just don’t know what will happen and defer to the academics and gamblers when it comes to seat projections, and indeed when it comes to who on earth is going to form our next government. I’d like to apologise to Independent on Sunday readers for fence-sitting, but as I’ve said repeatedly of late: How should I know? I’m only a pollster.” In pictures: Experts' predictions for the General Election - 03/05/15 Lord Ashcroft (Lord Ashcroft Polls) He refuses to make predictions. “My polls are snapshots, not predictions.” Rex

In a further sign that the post-election period could be somewhat chaotic, the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said that her MPs would vote down a future Labour government’s Budget if it held the balance of power in parliament unless Ed Miliband changed his current plans. The former Cabinet Secretary, Gus O’Donnell, told The Independent “it could be weeks” before a new government is formed.

“It could be multi-party, it could be mixtures of coalitions and deals – and the deals may be written or unwritten,” he said. “There are all sorts of possibilities. I suspect all parties involved will definitely take more time to consult.”

A string of polls released over the weekend again suggested that the election is too close to call. Two gave the Conservatives a 1-point lead while another had the two main parties level-pegging.

The Independent's animated general election explainer

If replicated on Thursday the polls suggest the Conservatives will have the most seats and the most votes but fall some way shy of an overall majority even with the backing of the Liberal Democrats.

Should that happen, under convention, Mr Cameron would get the first chance of to try to form a new government and would remain in Downing Street at least until his Queen’s Speech is put to a vote in the House. Senior Tories told The Sunday Times that in that scenario Mr Cameron would declare victory and give a statement in Downing Street on Friday, challenging Mr Miliband to strike a deal with the SNP to bring him down.

They say he will “quickly” argue that Labour cannot claim “legitimacy” to form a government if it is behind in its support and needs nationalist backing. Asked on the Sunday Politics show whether Mr Cameron would test his support by bringing forward a Queen’s Speech, the former Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said: “You would have to see the election results in that scenario.”