Bhopal: The stage is set for Congress candidate Digvijaya Singh versus Bhartiya Janta Party candidate Pragya Singh Thakur battle as polling begins in the Lok Sabha constituency of Bhopal. The Madhya Pradesh’s capital is one of the 29 parliamentary seats which are up for grabs in the sixth phase of the elections.

Polling in Bhopal is being touted as a straight fight between Digvijaya Singh and Pragya Singh Thakur.

Both the leaders held several public gathering and roadshows in the run-up to the elections, launching verbal attacks against each other. They also played Hindutva card during their election campaign. For decades, Bhopal has been BJP’s fortress as the seat has been held by the party since 1989. The Congress had last successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Bhopal in 1984.

While Digvijaya Singh, who is Madhya Pradesh former chief minister, has been toiling hard to regain the Lok Sabha seat for Congress, Pragya Thakur, a Malegaon blast accused is looking to retain the seat for the BJP.

In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Alok Sanjar won the seat by defeating Congress’s PC Sharma with a huge margin of 3,70,696 votes. The Bhopal parliamentary seat includes eight Assembly constituencies- Berasia, Bhopal Uttar, Narela, Bhopal Dakshin-Paschim, Bhopal Madhya, Govindpura, Huzur and Sehore. The results will be announced on May 23.