Shimla, Dec. 18 (PTI): The Bharatiya Janata Party is all set to wrest power from the Congress in Himachal Pradesh as it won 44 seats falling short of a two-thirds majority by two seats in the 68-member house, while the ruling party bagged 20 seats and was leading in one.

The CPI(M) won the Theog seat while Independents are leading in one seat.

Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is leading from Arki while his son Vikramaditya Singh won from Shimla(Rural).

Prem Kumar Dhumal, BJP's chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh lost to Congress's Rajinder Rana in Sujanpur.

Out of eight ministers in the fray, three have lost while three others are trailing. Two ministers are leading.

Senior-most minister Kaul Singh lost the polls from Drang and while his daughter Champa Thakur suffered defeat at the hands of BJP's Anil Sharma from Mandi.

BJP candidate Suresh Bharadwaj retained the prestigious Shimla seat while Anirudh Singh of Congress retained Kusumpti seat.

Congress candidate Harshvardhan won from Shillai, wresting the seat from Baldev Singh Tomar of BJP while Govind Thakur of BJP scored the third successive victory from Manali.

However, senior BJP leader Maheshwar Singh failed to retain his Kullu seat.

Main rivals BJP and Congress contested all 68 seats at stake. The hill state witnessed a record 75.28 per cent turnout.   

The Congress and the BJP had 36 and 26 seats respectively in the outgoing House.

Himachal Pradesh has a tradition of change in government after every elections.

The BJP ousted the Congress in 1990 and the Congress avenged defeat in 1993. The BJP formed the government with the help of Himachal Vikas Congress in 1998 and the Congress was back in power in 2003. The BJP made a comeback in 2007.