AN area that returned an SNP MP just months after nearly two-thirds of its population voted against independence was always going to make for one of the more intriguing contests from the moment the election was called.

Add on the fact that the battle to represent East Dunbartonshire is between the UK's former minister for women, an ex-TV news presenter, a self-proclaimed "red Tory" lawyer and 21-year-old university student and the words eclectic mix don't even begin to cover it.

On the face of it the overwhelmingly middle-class constituency, with its leafy suburbs and commuter towns, is one of the more vulnerable seats held by the SNP, with John Nicolson holding a 2,167 advantage over the second-placed Liberal Democrats in 2015.

Former LibDem minister for women and equalities, Jo Swinson, appears to think so as she is stopped by a retired resident in the town of Bearsden as she walks through easy-on-the-eye streets on a lightly-sunny evening on the last day of spring.

"There's something about being the challenger rather than the incumbent", says Swinson as she hands the man – a Lib Dem supporter – a sizeable Vote Swinson garden poster of the type generally only seen at election times in middle class suburbia.

"There was a lot of momentum with the SNP last time around, but there are different sorts of indicators this time around", says Swinson who was one of the high profile LibDem casualties in the party's meltdown in 2015.

Her anger over her party's role in the Tory-led coalition government, in which she was the most prominent LibDem woman minister, has largely "dissipated" in the last two years, as she moves towards another row of house in Bearsden.

However, the SNP's Nicolson, a former BBC Newsnight and STV presenter, believes Swinson is kidding herself about the prospects of a Scottish LibDem revival.

"It's only two years since they were in government and people here remember what the LibDems did," says Nicolson who is preparing for an evening's canvassing in Bishopbriggs, a commuter town on the fringes of Glasgow.

Speaking about LibDem MPs voting for austerity measures like the controversial Bedroom Tax, Nicolson adds: "It's still very fresh in people's minds."

He is taking a quick breather in the SNP's campaign committee rooms in Bearsden before an evening's canvassing after a day in Kirkintilloch, sometimes known as the Canal Capital of Scotland.

The former newsman, who spoke for the SNP at Westminster on media issues in the last parliament, suggests the LibDems are a busted flush in most parts of the constituency, with the Tories now the main challengers to his party.

"The Tories think they're the principal challengers here and our canvass returns show that the Tories are in second [behind the SNP]", says Nicolson as he decides he's had enough of a break from campaigning and heads back to the streets.

At first glance East Dunbartonshire should be fertile ground for the Tories, with towns like Milngavie, a popular retirement spot on the Allander Water and the affluent Lenzie and Bearsden.

However, Nicolson insists there is widespread fear of a re-emboldened Tory government being elected with the potential to unleash further austerity on public services he says the local population rely on.

"There's a lot of concern about what a large Tory majority would mean for East Dunbartonshire and Scotland as a whole," is how he puts it.

Tory candidate Sheila Mechan appears to believe she could pull off a shock as she comes to the end of an evening's canvassing in her home town of Bearsden, part of which she represents on East Dunbartonshire council.

The Tories finished in a poor fourth place behind Labour in 2015 in the Westminster constituency, something that suggests Nicolson's claim of widespread trepidation about Theresa May's party could hold some truth.

Mechan is making a pitch for Unionists to vote tactically for her, as she highlights the 61.2 per cent of the electorate in the East Dunbartonshire council area that voted against independence in the 2014 referendum.

She says: "East Dunbartonshire was the largest turnout in the 2014 referendum (at 91 per cent) and had the huge vote against independence – yet we get an SNP MP. The Unionist vote is split and that's how we ended up with an SNP MP."

To many it will sound like a Tory Central Office scripted answer for Mechan to make on the doorsteps in the middle-class parts of the constituency she is heavily targeting like Bearsden, Lenzie and Milngavie.

But Mechan – who had a spell as leader of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association but was sacked after 13 days in the job, amid a breakdown in working relationships with other union staff – suggests she is prepared to go off script.

"I'm a bit of a red Tory and I want to see good employment rights," says Mechan, who now works as an employment lawyer.

Labour's candidate accepts that the Tories' uncompromising Unionist message is gaining some traction, but claims Jeremy Corbyn is proving more popular in an affluent area than he had initially expected.

Callum McNally, a history and politics student at Stirling University, is one of Labour's youngest candidates in Scotland at the age of 21.

He has lived in Bishopbriggs and Lenzie and is out on the stump with Scottish Labour's transport spokesperson Neil Bibby.

"Jeremy Corbyn has had an incredibly positive campaign with most people on the doorstep," he says. "Before the election Jeremy Corbyn was not given a fair display [in the media]."

"The [Labour] manifesto has gone down incredibly well", adds McNally.

He does seem to be politely received as he knocks doors with Bibby, with some favourable comments made about Labour policies such as rail nationalisation in a constituency that relies heavily on commuter rail services.

However, it remains unlikely that support for such policies will be enough to deliver a victory for Labour in a constituency held by all four major parties in Scotland during the last four decades.