Calcutta, May 3 :    Calcutta, May 3:  One is looking at the other to deliver the ballast to fire the last lap of her run for the red-brick building in Calcutta. The other hopes to kickstart her race for the pink-stone building in Delhi with the capture of Bengal. For the first time in their political careers, the power pretenders - Sonia Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee - took the stage together in election rallies strung across the south of Bengal, proving a perfect foil for each other. Starting at Midnapore, which will be the single most important district in this any-which-way election, they travelled into the Red Fort's sanctum, Burdwan, Sonia using reason and Mamata rhyme to tell the voter to throw the Left Front out. No ambiguity. No beating about the bush. The two women came, each prepared with her brief, and stuck to it. So did the people: See Sonia, hear Mamata. They came to see Sonia: how the aquiline features look in a block-printed yellow-and-brown Sanganeri sari with the pallu over the head. Mamata's grey-and-black Dhaniakhali is familiar. They came to hear her. Mamata couldn't have had a better homecoming, nor Sonia a better reunion. Their body language and the rapport they seemed to have renewed in the one hour they spent together before reaching Ravan Maidan at Kharagpur for the first of the meetings didn't leave any more scope for misunderstanding in the brief but tempestuous relationship between the Congress and Trinamul. Despite a minor divergence in their rhetoric - Sonia attacked both the Left and the BJP and Mamata only the Left - the similarities between their languages and their tenor were striking for a joint first meeting. Sonia, not known for her stridency, matched Mamata epithet for epithet in her laboured Hindi. 'There's no law in West Bengal, it has been replaced by the rule of CPM law,' she said. The Midnapore crowd lapped it up. Mamata spoke before Sonia, perhaps the only leader she has given the final-speech honour to since becoming Mamata. 'I have come here on numerous occasions. Today you must have come to hear Soniaji,' Mamata said, keeping her speech short. 'Vote. Don't be afraid,' she told the people of violence-ravaged Midnapore. 'Vote without fear,' Sonia chorused. Before that she got a taste of the Mamata 'wind' as the truant-daughter-come-home worked the crowd up into a frenzy like a rock artiste with her chant: 'Bhikkhe noy, chaichhi rheen, Hindu-Muslim vote din, CPM-ke shoriye din. (I'm not begging, I'm asking for a loan, vote and dethrone the CPM).' The leader of the 112-year party acknowledged the prowess of the leader of a three-year party by nudging Mamata forward as they climbed down the dais. Sonia's appeal is to the Muslim: 'If there is any party in this country that has not compromised with the BJP, it is the Congress.' Mamata's to everybody. Her idea of a 'people's mahajot' is taking shape in pockets of the Red Fort. She does not bash the BJP because she wants their votes. Mamata is one label that fits all except the colour red. Sonia wants Mamata. 'It is true that parties fight polls. But once the election is over, the government belongs to the people. Those who go against the people have no right to continue in government. We, the Congress and Mamata, have entered into this alliance to liberate the people of Bengal from the CPM's oppression,' says Sonia, voice already hoarse at Burdwan, only the second meeting of the day. She is speaking Mamata's language. Minutes earlier, the Trinamul leader took on the 'penitent' CPM. 'Now they are saying they have made mistakes.' She is talking of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's promise of a new, improved Left Front. 'You do not make mistakes for 24 years. You commit crimes! You do not wake up from slumber after 24 years. You give way! Jyoti Basu is dreaming of becoming Prime Minister again and is now leading a third front. What is the third front without the Congress? A zero. It is time for him to amuse his grandchildren and great-grandchildren: Twinkle, twinkle little star, dadu hoben barrister.' Mamata speaks for 13 minutes. In between, she has sought the crowd's response six times. Once she interrupts herself, when some to her left complain they cannot see because of the Congress and Trinamul flags fluttering on the dais. Mamata walks to the corner, ties the flags together. The crowd can see, the flags are not removed, the message is delivered. The crowd is rapturous. Sonia Gandhi loves it, too. She is laughing, perhaps wishing she had the idea.