NEW DELHI: India’s main national opposition party has been elected to power in Himachal Pradesh state, wresting control from the Congress party, which heads the national government, the Election Commission said on Friday.

In a landslide victory, the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 41 of the 68 seats in the state assembly, where it previously held only 16, according to the Election Commission’s website.

The centre-left Congress shed 20 of the seats it won in 2003, winning only 23 this time around.

The scenic and relatively prosperous Himalayan state is not especially significant in the national picture, it being home to a mere 6 million of India’s billion-plus population.

Power has alternated between the two rival parties in the state over the past two decades as voters often tire within a single term of whoever is in power.

Nonetheless, the victory will further boost the BJP’s morale, coming five days after it comfortably won a third term in power in Gujarat, a key state in the country’s west.

The party had been struggling for direction since losing control of the national government in 2004. —Reuters