Parties are limbering up for tough battle over a widespread political landscape

South seeks greater share or rural attention

AYR to North Berwick, and Eyemouth to Wigtown, do not have much to link them, other than some of Scotland's more meandering roads.

But after eight years as the South of Scotland region, its various parts have become an increasingly coherent political entity, fighting for improved transport links, a university, and voicing concern that the Highlands and Islands region has tended to get all the rural attention when the south has a strong case as well.

The four main parties are fighting hard within different constituencies across the south, with the outcome of local battles having a big impact on some significant political careers.

This is where the SNP's Michael Russell hopes for a comeback, having been ejected four years ago, while Conservative MSP Murray Tosh is moving from his west of Scotland list berth.

He has a tough battle to keep a seat at Holyrood and a reasonable chance of being presiding officer if he does - the same precarious position in which George Reid found himself four years ago.

While the Tories have fought to re-establish a foothold in the north-east and Perthshire, their best prospects now lie in the south.

It was in Ayr that John Scott won the parliament's first by-election in 2000. Alex Fergusson went even further by unseating the SNP's Alastair Morgan from Galloway and Upper Nithsdale in 2003 and, since Mr Morgan was returned on the list, they will battle it out again.

Conservatives fared dismally across the rest of Scotland at the 2005 Westminster election, with David Mundell the only candidate to win a seat, taking Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, which had notionally been Labour.

He had run a centrist, localised campaign, learning lessons from the LibDems about how to organise and put down local roots.

Although the boundaries are different, Mr Tosh hopes that base will help his candidacy for the Holyrood version of Dumfries, in which he is lead contender to oust Labour's Elaine Murray.

With a 1096 majority, her opponents play on local concern that the Crichton Campus, the region's best hope of a university presence, will fall apart following the pull-out of much of Glasgow University's arts courses.

Labour ministers have tried hard to reassure voters that student places and prospects will not be harmed.

If Mr Tosh fails to defeat Ms Murray, who served briefly as a minister and then left office saying she wanted to spend more time working the constituency, the Tory ex-teacher has to get lucky on the Conservatives' regional list, where he is placed fifth.

While Labour won Ayr in 1999, the quietly-spoken Tory farmer John Scott is credited with working the constituency effectively, helped by its former MP Phil Gallie. Mr Gallie, who was at Westminster from 1992 to 1997, and has had eight years as a list MSP, is standing down at this election.

But he is not retiring yet, with an eye to a berth in Strasbourg if John Purvis quits as one of the Scottish Tories' two MEPs in 2009.

An interesting seat to watch will be East Lothian, which is confusingly not included in the Lothian region. This part of Scotland is seeing some of the fastest private housing and population growth, boosted by the effects of Edinburgh's boom times.

Despite its prosperous farming country and new-build estates, its electorate is still dominated by former mining communities in Tranent and Prestonpans, home also to one of Scotland's largest Labour clubs.

John Home Robertson, having been a Labour MP and MSP since 1978, is standing down, after Tony Blair offered him a place in the House of Lords.

This was to make way for Iain Gray, the former Edinburgh Pentlands MSP who was promoted under three First Ministers to take the enterprise and lifelong learning portfolio.

Having lost his seat in 2003 to Tory leader David McLetchie, largely over the issue of road tolls round the capital, Mr Gray became a political adviser at the Scotland Office in Whitehall, working for Alistair Darling.

That was how he became well known to the Blair and Brown teams in Downing Street, who recognised his political skills in quietly liaising and soothing the tetchy and occasionally strained relationship with Team McConnell at Holyrood.

The London leadership reckoned that, with the Holyrood Labour team lacking star talent, Mr Gray should be found a safe Labour seat with which to return to the front line. So if Labour returns to power, he would be a strong contender for a senior post.

Indeed, if Jack McConnell slips badly at this election, or opts to stand down before 2011, this former teacher and Oxfam worker is one of the few strong contenders to replace him.

Michael Russell is the SNP's candidate in Dumfries, but the party's former chief executive and education spokesman is more likely to make his return from second place on the regional list.

His four years out of parliament have not been without their difficulties, however, having been blamed by John Swinney for using his journalism to push for the leader's downfall in 2004, and then daring to take on Alex Salmond in the leadership contest after Mr Swinney quit.

If they both return to the Scottish Parliament, it will be interesting to see how well they can work together.

Another name to watch on the list will be Rosemary Byrne, who may receive some publicity as the only Scottish Socialist MSP to join Tommy Sheridan in setting up Solidarity.