``Who cares for a declining Howrah?'' asks Banerjee. ``Just no one, you know, just no one...I am contesting as a Congress candidate to protest against the huge neglect of the once prosperous and now declining Howrah.''

This, the former academic explains, is the reason he has opened a new chapter in his life at 63 years of age. Banerjee retired from Calcutta University's Postgraduate Arts and Commerce Faculty two years ago and has also served as professor in two well-known institutions of Howrah, Deenabandhu and Bijoy Krishna Girls' Colleges. Therefore, he feels, he knows the grief of this constituency, which was once Asia's most prosperous industrial township. ``Ican feel their pain at their declining standard of living like no one would,'' he says.

Incidentally, while this is his first foray into elections, Banerjee has been a known Left-basher. While a rising figure in academic circles in the state, he had been a part of a core group of anti-Left intellectuals from Howrah led by Chandan Roychowdhury of Calcutta's Asiatic Society. According to him, he joined the Congress as ``it is a not a political party but an institution representing the spirit and the essence of national life, and I had no choice''.

The party also happens to be on a losing wicket in West Bengal. So how does Banerjee rate his chances against his formidable rivals -- Swadesh Chakraborty of the CPI(M) and Dr Kakoli Ghoshdostidar of the Trinamool. The novice Congressman has already learnt to play safe. While we pass through Salkia, Lillua, Belur and Bally, the industrial belt of the town worst hit by factory closures, lock-outs and population explosion, Banerjee replies: ``They (both the CPI-Mand the Trinamool Congress) have big money which I don't have. All I have right now is the love of thousands of dedicated grass-root Congress workers and a hope that finally the people will reject candidates who talked big but did nothing to improve their conditions.''

Ambika Banerjee, the party's 1998 candidate who had finished third with 1.34 lakh votes -- after the Trinamool's Bikram Sarkar and the CPI(M)'s Chakraborty -- harbours this hope too. She feels that the Trinamool's decision to replace Sarkar with Ghoshdostidar has made the Congress chances brighter.

But Banerjee claims his goals go far beyond winning this election. ``My mission is also to inspire people with clean records from other walks of life to come to politics,'' he says. ``Otherwise, it will be left to the corrupt.''