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NEW DELHI, Sunday (Reuters)-India's main opposition Congress party wrested power from the ruling Hindu nationalists on Saturday in a poll in northern Himachal Pradesh state seen as a pointer to how the parties may fare in national elections.

The victory was a comeback for Congress which lost heavily in December to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in western Gujarat, torn by Hindu-Muslim riots.

With five more states, including key Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, set to vote this year and national polls due in 2004, analysts had seen the vote in Himachal Pradesh, a small hill state of 6.1 million, as a barometer of the BJP's popularity.

"It's most encouraging...a matter of great happiness," Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born leader of the traditionally secular Congress party, said after results were announced in Himachal Pradesh and three tiny northeastern states.

Congress won 40 seats in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh assembly, nine more than in the previous assembly. The BJP took 16, down from 31.

In the remote northeast, racked by separatist and tribal revolts, Congress retained power in Meghalaya but lost its majority in Nagaland where the rebel-backed Nagaland People's Front made big gains.

Communist Left Front held on to power in its bastion of Tripura.

After a string of defeats in earlier state polls, the BJP swept Gujarat on a hardline Hindu platform, reviving its hopes of retaining power in the nation of more than one billion.

The BJP's critics had said they feared the Gujarat victory would prompt the party to spread its Hindu revivalist agenda, undermining India's officially secular status. Political analyst Inder Malhotra, former editor of the Pioneer daily, said the Congress win had "given a jolt to the idea that hardline Hinduism is the magic formula for the BJP".

BJP spokesman Pramod Mahajan played down the loss, saying Himachal Pradesh has traditionally turned on ruling parties. It was "the anti-incumbency factor", he said. Some analysts also cautioned against reading too much into the results. "People in Himachal Pradesh always want a change," said Punjab University political scientist P.S. Verma, adding voters had been upset over unemployment and other local issues.

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