New Delhi [India], December 18 (NT): As the counting of votes for the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly Polls commenced, the early trends show the Congress party giving neck to neck fight to the Saffron Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in both the states.

At the time of reporting, the BJP was leading on 48 seats while Congress on 40 in Gujarat.

In Himachal Pradesh, the trends appeared to follow the same until BJP grabbed a lead by eight seats.

The counting of votes for 68 Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh and 182 constituencies in Gujarat commenced on Monday at 8 am.

The hill state Himachal Pradesh went to polls on November 9 while Polls were held in two phases in Gujarat on November 9 and 14 respectively.

Congress leader and six-time Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is challenging in opposition to former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to be the next head of the state.

A total of 337 candidates, together with 19 women, are in fray to sweep the polls in the hilly state.

Virbhadra Singh and Dhumal are among the 62 sitting MLAs who contested the polls.

Polling for 68 seats of Himachal Pradesh, which was conducted on November 9 in a single phase to decide the next chief minister, recorded 74.61 per cent voter turnout, the most highest-ever in the state.

However, the exit polls had suggested a change of political guard in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state.

The Congress party is currently in power in the state and the BJP is aiming to return to power after a gap of five years.

In 2012, the Congress party defeated the BJP and won an outright majority by winning 36 of the 68 seats under the leadership of Virbhadra Singh thus proving most of the pollsters and exit polls wrong, which had predicted a photo-finish