Eyes on Sadhvi Pragya Thakur in politically significant Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh plays a significant role in the formation of a government at the centre as it sends 29 MPs to the lower house of the Parliament.

Bhopal: Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, which sends 29 MPs to the lower house of the parliament, will start at 8 am.

BJP's controversial leader Sadhvi Pragya Thakur and Congress senior leader Digvijay Singh are contesting from the prestigious Bhopal seat.

Thakur, an accused in 2008 Malegaon bombings and currently on bail, has been in news for all wrong reasons ever since she filed her nomination for the parliamentary seat.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to distance himself from her when she, during the electioneering, praised Mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse, calling him a “patriot”.

Reacting to her statement that brought shame to the entire nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: "I will never be able to forgive Pragya Thakur for insulting Mahatma Gandhi".

BJP also served her a show cause notice on the issue and gave her ten-day period to file her response.

She created yet another controversy earlier, by saying that former ATS chief Hemant Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks because of her “curse”.

Elections were conducted for all 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state in four different phases on April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19.