The Congress on Thursday led over the ruling BJP in the two Lok Sabha constituencies of Ajmer and Alwar in Rajasthan as officials counted the tens of thousands of votes polled in by-elections held on Monday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was, however, ahead of the Congress in the Mandalgarh Assembly seat, Election Commission officials said.

After the first round of vote count, Karan Singh Yadav of the Congress was ahead of Jaswant Singh Yadav of the BJP in Alwar by around 10,000 votes.

Raghu Sharma of the Congress was leading by 8,648 votes in Ajmer, his nearest rival being the BJP's Ram Swaroop Lamba.

BJP's Shakti Singh Hada had forged ahead of Vivek Dhakad (Congress) in the Assembly contest.

Assembly elections in Rajasthan are scheduled later this year.

A total of 42 candidates were in the fray in the three seats.

The elections were necessitated by the deaths of BJP MPs Sanwarlal Jat (Ajmer) and Mahant Chand Nath Yogi (Alwar) and BJP MLA Kirti Kumari from Mandalgarh.