She is undaunted despite repeated failures in the electoral battle. With uncommon ease she can trot out any amount of untruths. What does she say to his voters in Howrah now? " I happen to be the daughter of Howrah." I am a local " she is saying. The voters in Jadavpur and Diamond Harbour simply laugh at her. The people of Howrah will have to take her words with some of salt. It is well known that she told meetings in Jadavpur in 1996 and in Diamond Harbour in 1998 that she would not switch to a new constituency. She has done it again.

Breaking her own promise she has forsaken the electorate each of Jadavpur and Diamond Harbour in that order. The 'daughter' of Howrah today may again be the daughter or bahu of another constituency in the not so distant future.

For the voters of Howrah, this, however is not an uncommon experience. The Congress's Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi has ditched this town after umpteen number of promises to open the sick and closed industrial units in Howrah he is now fighting the election from Raigunj offering himself as "bhumiputra" or son of the soil. He won from Howrah twice but the locked gates of industries remain as they were before. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi has lost his love for Howrah. In between came Mr. Bikram Sarkar of the Trinamul Congress. Sarkar won the 1998 Lok Sabha polls. After his victory Mr. Sarkar virtually forgot his electorate. And the electorate's antipathy towards him is not unknown. So the Trinamul Congress has now fielded Dr. Ms. Kakali Ghosh Dastidar.

The Left Front leadership in the entire Howrah Lok Sabha constituency are scouting the nooks and corners of the town to impress upon the people why they need to defeat Dr. Ghosh Dastidar as Jadavpur and Diamond Harbour did in the past. The CPI (M) and other party workers of the Left Front can be seen holding workers' meetings everywhere to campaign for the Left Front candidate, mayor Swadesh Chakraborty. They are harping on the danger to Indian polity that may follow the victory of the Trinamul-BJP combine candidate. On the national plane, during the last 13 months or so, economic liberalisation during the BJP rule has been allowed to move at a faster pace than what it was even during the Congress regime. Even the Narasimha Rao government used to say reforms would have a human face although there was no effort at checking the reforms at the dictates of the IMF or the World Bank. Along with liberalisation, corruption is equally rampant during the BJP rule and so many scams, including the one involving import of Rs. 900 crores worth of sugar from Pakistan, was effected at a time when the Kargil conflict was assuming the shape of a fullscale war. And because of this anti-people policy of the Vajpayee government nine public sector industries in Howrah are now in a moribund stage.

Obviously people are aware that BJP's pro private sector policy has wrought havoc on the life of the workers, the middle-class has been disillusioned over the BJP's promise of millions of job to the unemployed. They are totally opposed to the Trinamul Congress or the NDA coming to power again. Rather they are veering round to the view that there life and property will be safer if a Left democratic and secular combine takes over after the election at the Centre. The Left Front workers are visiting all houses in their respective locality and explaining to one and all how government of the Left and secular parties will honestly try to revive the public sector units all over the country including those in Howrah.

The electorate of Howrah has had the experience of living with the former Trinamul Congress MP. Mr. Bikram Sarkar, a bureaucrat turned politician who himself away from the voters during the last 13 months.

When a section of the so-called Trinamul Congress functionaries had gone to him to take a lead in opening the steel division of the Guest Keen Williams company, Mr. Sarkar's reply was curt. " What can I do in it? It is a management job". He did not allow the conversation to proceed further. Sarkar has not only been withdrawn from Howrah; he has not been given any nomination of Trinamul Congress too. It is obvious that Dr. Ghosh Dastidar will have to face disturbing questions from the electorate about the Trinamul Congress. The Congress candidate is a former secretary of the Arts and Commerce Department of Calcutta University, Dr. Subhas Bndopadhyay. His campaign has not taken off as yet. Possibly he is counting days for a "wind" in his favour building shortly.