Keshpur, April 27 :    Keshpur, April 27:  A flag fluttering from a tall bamboo mast in the village centre marks this out as red territory. In the villages on either side of the road from Midnapore there are red flags fluttering everywhere. There is nary a doubt on who the victor of the turf war in Keshpur is. In Jamshed Ali Bhavan, the CPM zonal committee office in Keshpur Bazaar, Intaj Ali identifies villages from the names of their 'commanders'. A farmer, waiting for a lift to Midnapore town, says he can stay in his village because he 'surrendered'. He uses the English word 'surrender'. Surrendered? To whom? 'Comrade Taslim.' That must be Panchami village, says Intaj Ali. He tries to identify the man who spoke to a reporter. In a hamlet of mostly Muslim potato farmers just north of the bazaar, an old man says everything is peaceful now. 'The lal party is everywhere. What do you want me to say? You will go away just now, I have to be here.' If it were not known that Keshpur is the setting for a localised if prolonged political skirmish, the language of its residents would give the impression that they live under army occupation. Unless the tables are turned on the CPM and violence peaks again, there is only one way Keshpur can vote. Keshpur today is grist for the anti-Communist campaign - the sort that swept the globe in the years following Stalin. One story had it that people in the late Soviet leader's village in Georgia voted for him with such fervour that he polled more than 100 percent. 'They loved him so much that many voted for him twice,' Stalin's apologists are known to have explained. Nandarani Dal, Keshpur's sitting CPM MLA, is set to win handsomely. The party has 'captured' so much ground since it trailed by 16,000 votes in the Panskura bypoll last year, that its cadre have been asked to be prudent during the Assembly poll. The Keshpur constituency has an electorate of 1.55 lakh spread over 650 villages. Voters will exercise their right in 199 booths. Intaj Ali says that in last year's bypolls, Trinamul supporters had 'captured' 79 booths. These 'outsiders' and 'antisocials' have since been driven out and villagers inspired by party cadre will not allow them to re-enter. In the Trinamul office in Midnapore town, Mohammad Rafique - Mamata's 'Hero of Keshpur' and the Trinamul candidate in neighbouring Garbeta East - says his men are being branded antisocials. 'You just come here on the 10th (election day) and see what happens,' he says. 'It is not going to be a cakewalk for the CPM.' Sometime soon, somehow, anyhow, Trinamul activists swear, their supporters will return home and vote for Mamata Banerjee's candidate Rajani Dolui. Fearful villagers in Keshpur though have discovered something that is more important than elections: survival.'What vote? We will vote for that fence if we are asked to,' says Rukshana Begum in Ichhaipur village before she hurries indoors.