EASTERHOUSE is like a large municipal mouth undergoing some painful remedial dentistry.

The Glasgow housing scheme's ragged smile consists of the gap sites, then the dingy stumps of half-empty tenements full of dampness, graffiti, and ill-fitting windows, then the dazzling brilliance of the new and the renovated houses.

In the broad brushstroke of stereotyping, many people simply see Easterhouse as a vast estate of drab council housing. However, the changes in the past decade are startling.

The Government has spent millions of pounds, mainly through its housing agency, Scottish Homes, and the housing associations it has spawned, to redevelop the old in innovative and sometimes breathtaking ways.

This seedcorn of redevelopment has also tempted in the private developers on the periphery of Easterhouse who have been able to use cheap land deals to sell small flats and houses at prices that can undercut renting.

Now even the constituency covering Easterhouse has had its makeover with a new name and new boundaries.

It used to be Glasgow Provan but as the financially active left the area to seek jobs and better postcodes, the population within the Provan boundaries dropped to under 37,000 - nearly 20,000 below the acceptable figure for a Scottish constituency.

Part of the constituency, including Blackhill, Ruchazie, and Riddrie, went west to build up the voting figure in Glasgow Springburn, so the remaining swathe of Easterhouse, Garthamlock, Queen-slie, and Barlanark linked up with half of the old Shettleston constituency to its south.

Added to it were the older, often more attractive areas of Swinton, Garrowhill, Baillieston, Mount Vernon, and Carmyle, and thus the new name of Glasgow Baillieston emerged.

Like a parliamentary boatperson, ex-Gorbals councillor Jimmy Wray now finds himself put ashore in his fourth parliamentary seat as the city's southern and eastern constituencies constantly metamorphose to match the population swings.

Like many an MP in his position, Wray psyches himself up by saying he will fight the seat as if it were a marginal, although he took more than two thirds of the vote last time - all the more remarkable when it is remembered that there are four major parties in the contest.

''I'm not a great believer in safe seats. I believe you get what you work for,'' he says.

A boxer in his early days, Wray is still a doughty political fighter. Any local complacency was damaged by the surge in backing for Militant councillors in the late eighties and early nineties. ''I've seen them all off,'' he recalls.

The Scottish National Party came second last time. Its candidate is Patsy Thomson who works in Glasgow's social work department. Quite rightly she does not dwell on the 92 voting figures. ''The seat isn't Glasgow Provan. This is a fresh start for a new constituency,'' she argues.

She is a former member of the Labour Party and knows how difficult it is to change long-standing allegiances, but believes that the bonds between the working class and Labour are loosening.

Mr Malcolm Kelly, the Conservative candidate, works at Paisley University and although he has not fought a parliamentary election before, he is at least from the West of Scotland, reflecting the Conservative party's desire to field more Scots and shake off their English party tag.

The Liberal Democrats, never having a strong following locally, have not been so successful, and have drafted in university administrator Sheila Rainger from Chesham.

While the physical appearance of the area is improving, the cost has not come cheap. Apart from better housing, the people themselves have been helped with a network of community groups. However, many of them rely on funding either from the Scottish Office or Glasgow City Council.

Any cutbacks will have a damaging effect on the east of the city as poverty is an issue never far from the surface, no matter what physical improvements are carried out.

Wray has been campaigning to convince the Government to help Glasgow City Council out of its financial plight.

As MP for Glasgow Baillieston, he may have to do the same with a Labour Government, and there are many political opponents who will be watching with interest to see how good a fighter for the area he is when it's his own party that he is up against.

The contenders

LABOUR: Jimmy Wray, former lorry driver and councillor for Glasgow Gorbals who became MP for the then Glasgow Provan in 1987.

CONSERVATIVE: Malcolm Kelly, accounts and clerical assistant at Paisley University. Former secretary of Paisley Young Conservatives. Has stood in previous local government elections.

Liberal Democrat: Sheila Rainger, university administrator from Chesham.

Scotish Socialist Alliance: Jim McVicar, former Labour councillor who took 35% of the vote in the Baillieston ward in the 1995 council elections.

SNP: Patsy Thomson, employed in the children and families section of the city's social work department. Has stood in local elections previously, and is on the executive of Scottish CND.