It's now or never for twice beaten CPM in Serampore (653).

TIRTHANKAR MITRA

SERAMPORE, Sept. 29. - The seat has proved lucky for debutants, but the key candidates in the fray have all contested and won at least once before. Neither enjoying the beginners' luck nor having made much effort to improve the voters lot, the candidates are evenly matched, but till last week. The flash floods have come as a boon for Mr Akbar Ali Khondekar of the Trinamul Congress.

Plagued by closed factories and bad roads, many voters are irked by the government's "handling" of the floods. The rain has made the craters on the Grand Trunk Road bigger.

Serampore was the only rural constituency won by Trinamul in 1998 - Mr Khondekar …