Calcutta, April 28: The barrister from Lincoln’s Inn holds up his right hand in a victory sign, then slowly turns his wrist inward.

The actor had taken over, and the message is clear: he is Ramakrishna, the Paramhansa, and he would win.

As if on cue, chants of Ram Ram hare hare, Ajit Panja ghare ghare break through the haze of the sweltering Sunday afternoon.

It is 4.30. Panja, MP from Calcutta Northeast for the last 20 years, is on a campaign trail. “Chalo chalo, themey thekona, egiye chalo (Don’t stop, go on),” he tells his supporters before pausing to wipe the sweat off his face. His cream kurta, too, is soaked in sweat.

It’s cool inside the air-conditioned black Opel Astra, but the car has stopped in front of the Chandi temple.

Panja takes a pinch of mouri as the procession winds through the lanes off Narkeldanga Main Road. He has covered 80 per cent of his constituency and walked over 200 km. His hands are folded in a namaskar. Now and then he flashes a smile.

Several hundred supporters follow him with Trinamul Congress flags and cutouts of the grass-and-flower symbol of the party. Right behind the star campaigner, several men with dhak and the dhol play the beats of Sarey jahan se achha and an assortment of patriotic songs. People crowd the windows, rooftops and verandas for a glimpse of the man they have voted to victory since 1984.

Panja this time attracts more attention because of his new actor’s image. He has played Ramakrishna in the country and abroad for over a hundred nights. So when he twists the V gesture inward, he is just enacting the part of the saint.

The response from rivals is predictable. “If it does not constitute campaigning along the communal line, what does?” asks a CPM leader associated with youth services minister Mohammad Selim, Panja’s opponent.

As Panja walks door-to-door through the narrow streets in the Chanditala area, shaking hands and showering kisses on children, he suddenly spots 60-year-old Binapani De standing with her 11-year-old granddaughter.

Panja walks up to her. “Ma, money rekho May masher dash tarikhey vote, bhor bhor vote ta diye diyo kintu (Remember, the election is on May 10, cast your vote as early as you can),” he tells her before turning to the granddaughter: “Didima ke money koriye diyo (Remind your grandmother).”

On CIT Road and stretches of Upen Chandra Banerjee Road and Dhan Devi Khanna Road, Panja climbs into an open Mahindra jeep — with local party councillor Swapan Samaddar and MLA Paresh Pal — and stands with folded hands.

Pitted against Panja from the Congress is Moushumi Chatterjee, of Balika Bodhu and Ogo Bodhu Sundari fame. “I have seen very few films of Moushumi. I have seen Parinita and half of Balika Bodhu,” Panja says.

“Who has not seen Balika Bodhu in Bengal, but it is always good to keep the opponent under pressure by saying it is not worth sitting through the film,” explains one of Panja’s campaign managers.

Panja also talks of another film, Anurag, where Moushumi plays a blind girl. “It was 1974 and I was then the health minister of Bengal. In Anurag, the blind girl gets her younger brother’s eyes after he dies of an incurable disease. I enquired about the film and thought this theme would help promote the concept of eye donation. So I took the initiative to make it tax free,” says Panja.

As for his CPM rival, Panja reminds that last time he had defeated him by a margin of 41,000 votes. “I don’t consider Mohammad Selim to be a heavyweight,” he says.

Panja, who does pranam before a huge portrait of Ramakrishna Paramhansa before leaving his Girish Park home for campaigning, is known for his planning. He has a control room in the basement where details and backgrounds of every one of his eight-lakh odd voters are recorded.