Himachal Pradesh election result highlights: Congress wins 40 seats, returns to power; BJP claims 25

Independent Hoshyar Singh leads from Dehra in Round 1.

BJP's Lokender Kumar leads from Anni (SC)

BJP- 32 

Congress- 32 

Independent- 3

Independent Jagjiwan Pal, INC on third position.

BJP's Mulkh Raj leads from Baijnath.

BJP- 28 

Congress- 34 

Independent- 3 

AAP 0

Himachal Pradesh Congress Chief and wife of former HP Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Pratibha Singh said her party is expecting above 40 seats in today's election results.

"We are expecting above 40 seats, it can be more than 42, and can go up to 45 and above, I am not exaggerating, it could be less than this but it is clear that we are forming the government. This is the response from the people. I visited the areas and I have seen the response people and what they want that is very clear," said Himachal Congress chief.

The counting of votes for the crucial Himachal Pradesh Assembly election began at 8am and the early trends have started to emerge, giving an edge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the Congress. The ruling BJP is seeking a second term in Himachal Pradesh, aiming to break the state's streak of not electing the incumbent government to power twice. Here's a look at who is winning and who is losing

Satpal Raizada of Congress leads from Una against former state BJP president Satpal Satti.

Mukesh Agnihotri leads from Haroli.

Sudhir Sharma (INC) leads from Dharamshala.

Congress' Harish Janartha leads from Shimla by 578 votes.

Ranbir Nikka (BJP) leads from Nurpur against Congress district president Ajay Mahajan.

In the first 30 minutes, postal ballot papers were counted and then counting of votes for electronic voting machines (EVMs) commenced at 8.30 am. The BJP is leading on three seats in Himachal Pradesh and Congress on one, according to early trends on the Election Commission website.

Education Minister Govind Singh Thakur trails from Manali. 

RS Bali of Congress leads from Nagrota.

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu leads from Nadaun.

Carved out from the Kumarsain assembly segment in the 2008 delimitation exercise, Theog assembly constituency has been a battlefield of stalwarts. In 2017, five candidates were contesting for the Theog assembly constituency seat. It was a close contest with Communist Party Of India (Marxist)'s Rakesh Singha defeating the closest rival, Bharatiya Janta Party's Rakesh Verma, by a margin of just 1,983 votes.

This time, the seat is witnessing a four-cornered contest between Singha, Independent Indu Verma's wife two-time former BVJP legislator Rakesh Verma, former Pradesh Congress Committee chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore, BJP’s organizational Mahasu district president Ajya Shyam.

BJP rebel Independent candidate K.L Thakur is leading from Nalagarh. 

BJP MLA Rakesh Jamwal leads from Sunder Nagar. 

Former power Minister BJP candidate Anil Sharma leads from Mandi Sadar. 

BJP- 26

Congress- 30 

Independent- 5 

The pertinent independent candidates are: K L Thakur (Nalagarh), Manohar Dhiman (Indora), Ram Singh (Kullu), Raju (Arki), Hosihiyar Singh (Dehra), Indu Verma (Theog) and Sanjay Prasher (Jaswan-Pragpur).

BJP leader and state cabinet minister Mahender Singh is the sitting MLA from Dharampur, which he has represented in state assembly since 1990. A 7-term legislator from here, Mahender Singh, though, has won as candidate of various parties; when he won this seat for the first time, he contested as an independent. However, in three straight state polls – 2007, 2012, 2017 – he won on a BJP ticket.

The BJP has fielded Rajat Thakur, while the Congress face is Chandrashekhar. 

First official numbers in: Congress leads on 1 seat in Himachal

In Shillai, four candidates are in the fray for the assembly election – BJP's Baldev Singh, Congress's Harshwardhan Chauhan, AAP's Naathu Ram Chauhan, and RDP's Suresh Kumar. BJP’s Baldev Singh lost to Harshwardhan Chauhan in the 2017 Himachal Pradesh assembly elections but the saffron party, this time, is banking on the Union Cabinet's decision to give the tribal status to the Hattee community in the Trans-Giri regions of Sirmaur district.

BJP 25, Congress 28 and Independent 4

Himachal Pradesh's Fatehpur Assembly comes under the Kangra district and is a Congress' bastions. Bhawani Singh Pathania has bagged Congress ticket to contest from the seat, displacing the incumbent Sujan Singh Pathania. Rakesh Pathania will contest from the BJP and Rajan Sushant from the AAP. Other prominent candidates in the fray include BSP's Tilak Raj and independent candidate Kripal Singh Parmar.

No party has won a back-to-back election in Himachal Pradesh since 1985. If the BJP manages to retain power in Himachal Pradesh, that would be a record.

Haroli, earlier known as Santokgarh, is one of the 68 Assembly constituencies in Himachal Pradesh that comes under the Una district. The constituency has been a Congress bastion whose candidate Mukesh Agnihotri has been serving as the MLA from the seat since 2003. He is up against Ram Kumar from the BJP and Ravinder Pal Singh Mann of AAP. Naresh Kumar from BSP is also in the fray.

In the 2017 election, Haroli was one of 21 seats won by the Congress after Mukesh Agnihotri defeated BJP Ram Kumar Sharma by a margin of 7,377 votes.

BJP 22, Congress 26 and independents 4

This year the main contest will be among BJP's Trilok Jamwal, Congress's Bumber Thakur, and Amar Singh of AAP. BSP's Amar Nath and Ind's Subhash Sharma and Puja Pal from Rashtriya Devbhoomi Party (RDP) are also in the fray.

BJP 21 Congress 23 independent 3

Nurpur: BJP has fielded a new candidate Ranveer Singh who is fighting against Ajay Mahajan of Congress and Manishi Kumari from AAP.

Nagrota: Congress candidate RS Bali is fighting against BJP candidate Arun Kumar Mehra and APP candidate Umakant Dogra.

Sulah: Speaker of Himachal Pradesh Assembly Vipin Parmar is fighting from Sulah against Jagdish Sapheia and AAP candidate Ravinder Singh.

Sujanpur: Congress has again fielded Rajinder Singh Rana who defeated former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 elections. BJP has fielded Ranjit Singh from the seat and AAP has fielded Anil Rana.