Former first minister Alex Salmond said a coalition of pro and anti-independence voters will back him in the General Election as he dismissed suggestions that tactical voting could put an end to his plans to return to Westminster.

The former SNP leader is contesting the Gordon constituency in Aberdeenshire in next month's ballot, hoping he can win the seat from the Liberal Democrats.

With his party tipped to win dozens of seats across Scotland, Mr Salmond said voters in the area were excited by the prospect that Scotland could have a "huge influence in the next parliament" if no party wins an outright majority.

With this year's General Election being such a tightly-fought contest, he said: "There's a great deal of excitement about this campaign and that's all to the good, that's just how it should be."

The former first minister told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme: "We're looking for a coalition of people to vote SNP, people who voted Yes in the referendum, certainly, but there's also people who voted No on the basis Scotland was promised more powers - these people are very anxious that Scotland gets these powers.

"People are very excited in Gordon about the possibility that Scotland, if the people of Scotland so wish, will have huge influence in the next parliament."

He claimed "many millions of people" in both Scotland and the rest of the UK backed the move away from austerity that the SNP is proposing, with plans to increase public spending by at least £140 billion over the course of the next parliament.

"Many, many people are looking for an alternative to Tory/Liberal economics, not a substitute for it," Mr Salmond said.

Mr Salmond also dismissed suggestions that Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat supporters could join together and vote tactically against him.

He stated: "People vote in the north-east of Scotland for parties on a positive programme of what they can do for the constituency and for the country, what they can do for Scotland.

"This negative stuff is not going to cut any ice in the north-east of Scotland."

While the Liberal Democrats won the Gordon constituency in 2010, Sir Malcolm Bruce, who was the MP for the area, has now stepped down and has been replaced by candidate Christine Jardine.

She dismissed the slump in support for the Lib Dems in opinion polls, telling BBC Radio Scotland that the election "is about Gordon, the national polls do not reflect opinion here".

Ms Jardine said: "What we are finding on the doors is we have massive support across the board here in Gordon.

"We are the party that has looked after people here, stood up for them on the issues that they care about. The SNP are not.

"Every single local issue that has been raised in this campaign is an issue that Holyrood has let the people of Gordon down on, the SNP at Holyrood specifically, and Alex Salmond was first minister for seven years."

Tory candidate Colin Clark told the same programme: "It's all about Gordon, not about Alex. He certainly thinks it's about him but he has been too busy on book signings to be here very often.

"The Conservative Party are on the way up, the Labour Party and the Liberal party are on the way down, so we certainly feel that we are the stronger union party in this bit of Scotland."

He added: "Gordon is conservative with a small 'c' and Alex Salmond is a socialist with a large 'S'.

"The people of Gordon made it a success by private enterprise, not by the public sector, and I think this is good ground for the Conservatives. Traditionally, it's been a very Conservative area."

Labour's Braden Davy, who is also standing in the constituency, said: "The polls are very clear, we'll either end up with a Labour-led or a Conservative-led government.

"The Tories and the SNP are saying the same thing, talking up the SNP in Scotland, because the SNP can do what the Conservatives can't in Scotland, that's win seats from Labour."