BJP leading in three Himachal seats, Congress in one

Shimla, May 16 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was earlier leading in all the four parliamentary constituencies of Himachal Pradesh, started trailing in one seat as counting of votes progressed Saturday, a poll official said.

'While the BJP is maintaining a comfortable lead in three seats - Shimla, Hamirpur and Kangra - the Congress is now leading in one seat, Mandi, by early afternoon,' the official said.

Five-time former Congress chief minister Virbhadra Singh is leading over his rival Maheshwar Singh of the BJP by more than 13,000 votes from Mandi. This constituency saw the maximum voter turnout of 64 percent in the state.

From Hamirpur, sitting BJP MP Anurag Thakur, the son of Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, was leading by 72,378 votes, while the BJP's Virender Kashyap and Rajan Sushant from Shimla and Kangra are leading by 34,274 and 28,439 votes respectively.

The Congress had won three seats in the 2004 general elections, while the BJP had one.