NEW DELHI: The Bhartiya Janata Party candidate from Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur is leading by around 44,222 votes over senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh according to early trends as the counting of votes for 2019 Lok Sabha election is underway on Thursday.

The ruling BJP had sprung a surprise by giving the ticket to Thakur who is battling allegations of involvement in terror activities including a bomb blast in Malegaon town of Maharashtra in 2008. She is currently out on bail.

The Congress had also surprised everyone by fielding former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh who fell out of Congress leadership’s favor due to mishandling of party’s affairs post-election on Goa a couple of years ago.

Singh was also not very active in 2018 state assembly elections in the state in which the Congress ended BJP’s 15-year long rule and Kamalnath became state’s chief minister.

BJP president Amit Shah has termed Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur’s candidature as a “Satyagraha” against the Congress’s alleged conspiracy of defaming Hindu religion by coining the term Hindu terror.

This seat was won by BJP’s Alok Sanjar in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Sanjar had defeated the Congress’s P.C.Sharma by over 3,70,000 votes.

Thakur made one controversial statement after another during her campaign which forced her own party to disassociate with her.

PM Modi also said that he won’t be able to forgive her for her remarks calling Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse a patriot.

Singh had tried countered Thakur’s Hindutva centric campaign by bringing many Sadhus in his campaign in a seat which is one of the most keenly watched seat this election. However, Bhopal is known as BJP bastion.