Kolkata: It is a fight between the stars and Trinamool heavyweights in the city's two prestigious constituencies, Calcutta South and Calcutta North East, which engrossed poll pundits in guessing how much the stars will shine in the ensuing electoral battle.

Former Miss India and ace swimmer Nafisa Ali and film actress Mousumi Chatterjee have thrown their hats into the ring on Congress tickets from these two seats.

Nafisa, who has also acted in a number of Hindi films including Junoon, was pitted against the firebrand Nationalist Trinamool Congress (NTC) chief and Union Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Calcutta South constituency.

Mousumi, who won the hearts of Bengali cine goers with her debut film 'Balika Badhu' in the seventies, would challenge Trinamool veteran and former Union Minister Ajit Kumar Panja in the Calcutta North East.

Nafisa, whose candidature was announced by AICC (All India Congress Committee) earlier, has already launched her campaign in the constituency, while Mousumi was expected to arrive from Mumbai on Sunday (Apr 4, 2004) to take the plunge into electoral politics.

Undeterred by her formidable rival, Nafisa has focussed her campaign on Mamata joining hands with "communal" BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and also questioned her decision to quit the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) to later rejoin the same coalition.

Flaunting her Bengali identity Nafisa, whose father still lives in a village in Hooghly district, said that she would not let the people down if they give her a chance.

Throwing down the gauntlet at Banerjee in her own backyard, the former swimming champion exuded confidence saying, ''Mamata is against the tide. I am a new force. I will ride the tide and come ashore.''

Poll observers were not as hopeful of Nafisa's victory as she was herself. Pointing to past electoral records, they said, Mamata who had won the seat four times in a row since 1991 has increased her margin in every successive Lok Sabha election.

''Mamata also knows her constituency like the back of her palm,'' they said.

Mamata herself did not attach much importance to Nafisa and welcomed her as a rival candidate.

Although she refrained from personal attacks on the NTC supremo and called her "didi", Nafisa did not spare her on the question of her return to the NDA fold and said it was only to stay in power.

Though late in launching her campaign, Mousumi was determined to give a tough fight to Panja, who has won the Calcutta North East seat consecutively for six times since 1984. After his defeat in 1980 to his CPI-M (Communist Party Marxist) rival Sunil Moitra, Panja tasted victory in 1984 and since then he has never looked back.

A Congress leader, who was responsible for organising the cinestar's poll campaign programme in the constituency, said that Mousumi would launch her campaign with two meetings of party workers from the constituency on Monday (Apr 4, 2004) after her arrival on Sunday night.