The Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate from Noorpur assembly seat, Naeem-ul-Hasan has taken an over 9,000 votes lead against his nearest BJP rival Avani Singh, a poll official said on Thursday.

 In a major setback to the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, its candidate is trailing in the high-stake Kairana parliamentary constituency, the counting for which is underway on Thursday, an official said.

Counting of votes for the byelection to the Jokihat Assembly seat in Bihar was underway on Thursday with the ruling JD-U candidate Murshid Alam taking an early lead with over 33,500 ballots, according to Election Commission officials.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party notched early leads in the Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha bypolls, counting of votes for which in underway on Thursday.

Social discussion website Reddit has surpassed Facebook to become the third most visited platform in the US, according to Alexa, the Amazon-owned web traffic analysing platform.

Counting of votes for the bypoll to the Chengannur Assembly seat in Kerala is underway on Thursday with CPI-M candidate, Saji Cherian, taking a comfortable lead of over 4,000 votes after counting started for the third round.

Counting was underway for Punjab's Shahkot Assembly seat byelection on Thursday with the ruling Congress candidate leading by over 2,000 votes.

Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Pandurang Phundkar died on Thursday following a massive heart attack here, a BJP official said.