New Delhi : As the counting of votes for the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections began, the early trends show the Congress party giving tough fight to the 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 seemed to follow the same until BJP took a lead by eight seats.

The counting of votes for 68 Assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh and 182 constituencies in Gujarat began on Monday at 8 am.The hill state went to polls on November 9 while elections were held in two phases in Gujarat on November 9 and 14 respectively.