A visit to the prestigious constituency stretching from posh Chowringhee area to semi-urban Sonarpur reveal the strong root her mass appeal has taken among electors.

Popularly known as `Didi' (sister), Mamata Banerjee single-handedly steered her party campaign statewide to hit the electioneering trail in her own seat a bit late.

She is greeted warmly by people everywhere she goes in her constituency which she describes as her "home".

Poll observers say that despite the presence of Congress candidate Partha Roychowdhury, in the 10-corner contest her main fight would be with Subhankar Chakraborty, vice-chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, the CPI(M) nominee.

A lightweight in politics, he is trying hard to corner Banerjee over local issues. To match her charisma, Chakraborty, known as "mastermoshai" (teacher), is concentrating on door-to-door campaign.

Calcutta South with an electorate of a little over 12 lakh would go to the polls along with other seats in West Bengal on October 3.

Charging Trinamool Congress leader with helping communal forces, Chakraborty says given an opportunity he would ask her why she invited BJP to the state.Till 1989 no other candidate could win this seat twice, but the stormy petrel in Bengal politics broke the jinx after she moved here after defeat in neighbouring Jadavpur in 1989.

Banerjee not only made a hat-trick from Calcutta South but hiked her margin of victory each time since 1991 when she won by 93,603 votes. She pulled off two spectacular triumphs in 1996 and 1998 trouncing veteran CPI(M) leader and former state minister Prasanta Sur by over 2.24 lakh votes each time.Analysts say that despite changing candidates in the last three elections, the Marxists have failed to stop her and in 1998 the party's vote share dropped by 6.80 per cent.

Statistics indicate that in 1998 Banerjee took the lead in all the seven assembly segments, including Sonarpur, regarded as a Marxist stronghold.The Congress, meanwhile, is desperately trying to retain its vote bank in the constituency where the party has experienced a massive negative swing of 44.82 per cent in the last election. Party candidate Sougata Roy managed to poll just about seven per cent votes.

Like the last election, BJP which entered into seat-sharing with the Trinamool Congress did not put up any candidate in this seat. To demonstrate that the Trinamool-BJP was putting up a united fight, Banerjee was accompanied by state BJP vice-president Paras Dutta during electioneering.

Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is also scheduled to address a meeting in Calcutta South on the last leg of campaigning on September 28.

Analysts say another factor which might help her is her decision to join the ministry at the Centre if the national democratic alliance comes to power.The defection of senior Congress MLA from Chowringhee Subrata Mukherjee to Trinamool might also boost her prospects, they say.

In her campaign Banerjee has made stability as her main plank and accused veteran Marxist leader and chief minister Jyoti Basu of "conspiring" with Congress leading to the fall of the Vajpayee government.

Banerjee has said "you had elected me to serve a full term of five years but they (Congress and CPM) destabilised the government".

She also listed the achievements of her party during the brief rule of the BJP-led government including the implementation of the much-publicised "Bengal package" for the development of the state. But CPI(M) has contested her claim saying that there is nothing new in it.