As it happened | US presidential election: Donald 'trumps' Hillary, wins White House race

Republican nominee Donald Trump has won the 2016 US presidential election after the poll results were declared on Wednesday (Indian Standard Time). Trump defeated his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a pitched race to the White House.

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The election result is in stark contrast to the opinion polls that projected Hillary's victory.

Interestingly, the Trump campaign, in the build up to the polls, had filed a lawsuit complaining about the voting process. Trump’s legal team had sued Joe Gloria, a registrar of voters in Nevada’s Clark County, over his decision to keep polling locations open “two hours beyond the designated closing time” on the final day of early voting. However, Nevada judge rejected Trump request for order over early voting.

There were reports of intimidating voters during the election. According to Election Protection helpline, there were 63 cases of intimidation reported at the polling booths.

Here are the highlights: 

12:15 (IST)

Donald Trump to win Alaska’s 3 electoral votes as per CNN projects

11:07 (IST)

Hillary Clinton wins Nevada

11:07 (IST)

Trump on verge of victory, leads Clinton by 238-209 in race to 270 electoral votes

10:29 (IST)

Trump wins Utah and Georgia

9:44 (IST)

Trump wins North Carolina

9:30 (IST)

Donald Trump edges past Clinton in battleground state of Florida

9:20 (IST)

Donald Trump wins Colorado, inches closer to victory

9:15 (IST)

Donald Trump wins key swing state Ohio, Clinton wins Virginia

9:00 (IST)

Clinton wins New Mexico, Trump takes Missouri

8:20 (IST)

Donald Trump wins Louisiana. Hillary Clinton wins Connecticut.

8:10 (IST)

Republican Donald Trump has won Arkansas and its six electoral votes.

8:00 (IST)

Trump wins Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska while Hillary Clinton takes New York and Illinois.

Trump wins Nebraska and two of the state's three congressional districts, winning total of 4 electoral votes.

7:45 (IST)

Donald Trump has won Tennessee and its 11 electoral votes.

As per reports in Associated Press (AP), Donald Trump has won Alabama and its nine electoral votes after Sen. Jeff Sessions endorsed the billionaire candidate.

7:42 (IST)

Donald J. Trump has won Alabama’s 9 electoral votes. Trump has polled 9,644 more votes than Hillary Clinton, with 2 percent reporting. Donald J. Trump is up by 39 points with 2 percent of precincts reporting.

7:32 (IST)

As per reports from ABS poll, Hillary takes the lead with 72 to Trump's 57

7:20 am (IST) 

Senate control up for grabs as GOP holds Florida. Republicans held onto a key Senate seat in Florida on Tuesday as their hopes of protecting their narrow majority rested on a handful of states that were toss—ups until the end.

7:00 am (IST)

As per ABC News projections, Republican nominee Mr Trump has racked up wins in southern states and Democrat Mrs Clinton has taken northeastern states

6:50 am (IST)

As per ABS poll prediction reports, Republican candidate Donald Trump was tipped to be victorious in Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Mississippi and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, The network tips Mrs Clinton to win in New Jersey, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, Illinois and Rhode Island.

6:40 am (IST)

Polls closed in North Carolina and Ohio, each of those states expected to be very competitive, but it is too early to call a winner.

6:30 am (IST)

Polls have closed in two of the fiercest battlegrounds, North Carolina and Ohio; Donald Trump jumps to the lead in very early returns in those states. 

6:20 am (IST)

Donald J. Trump has won three deep red states — Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia, earning a total of 24 electoral votes in his bid for the presidency.Hillary Clinton has won Vermont’s three electoral votes, emerging victorious in the state represented in the Senate by Bernie Sanders, her top Democratic challenger in the primaries

The wins were on expected lines. Vermont has voted for a Democrat every election since 1988, while Kentucky has gone Republican every cycle since 2000. Indiana is normally a Republican stronghold but went for President Barack Obama in 2008

5:40 am (IST)

According to exit polls, Donald Trump is projected to win in Indiana and Kentucky. Hillary Clinton has taken Vermont. 

Earlier, polling was opened in United States on Tuesday night as eight ballots were cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire as part of town's tradition of being "first in the nation", with Democratic candidate Clinton winning the contest.

Clinton registered her first 'win' in the 2016 elections by four votes to two against her Republican rival Donald Trump soon after midnight in the remote northeastern part of the US.

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump traded barbs in their final pitch to voters as the curtain came down on the ugliest campaign in US history and voting began on Tuesday in the knife-edge polls that will elect America's first woman president or put a political outsider in office.

(Read this story in Hindi here)