CHENNAI, SEPT 6: At the best of times you can't read Moopanar's face. And these aren't his best. The face is the perfect mask. The wavy hair combed back never gets ruffled and the eyebrows look tattooed on. They never rise or fall.No emotion. Even temperament. At best a reluctant smile.`This time it's a trial run,' says the Tamil Maanila Congress chief.Piloting his three-year-old party through the third election in three years, he says he knows no fatigue. `I'm 27,' says this 68-year-old. He wouldn't predict the poll outcome except Sonia's victory in Bellary.What about the TMC? Will there be a windfall?`It could also be a wash-out,' is his stoic reply.You'll be swept away by a Vajpayee-Kargil wave?`Kargil gave Vajpayee the edge - not a wave.'`We're making a beginning from where Kamaraj left off. We can't forever be a junior partner of the Dravidian parties.'Still sees himself as a Congressman?`Part of the Congress culture.'Then why did the Congress desert him? Also the Left,more so when he is doing something socially significant?`Someone misguided Madam' (read Sonia).A long pause and a deep draw at the Classic cigarette.`Yechuri was receptive but Surjeet wasn't convinced.'Earlier, at the well-attended public meeting in Villivakkam in the North Madras constituency campaigning for Haroon, he sticks to his staccato repertoire. `Vote for social, economic uplift; communal harmony, and help us lay the foundation to fight the 2001 Assembly polls and win.'Can't get more businesslike in a land known for its Dravidian poll-time theatrics.The articulate Jayanti Natarajan is more vocal about what she calls `The silent revolution.' The first-ever post-Dravidian social power shift which became apparent to her as the campaign picked up. But the TMC-Dalit tie-up has been far from smooth. It took a seasoned Moopanar to gloss over the kind of things Dr K Krishnaswamy had to say as the seat-sharing exercise crossed hurdle after hurdle. The good doctor, in the Kanshi Ram-Mayawatimould, is no believer in anaesthesia. He operates with a sledgehammer and tongs. `Electoral politics will moderate him,' hopes Moopanar.But political circles are sceptical. They don't see the 20 per cent dalit vote consolidating. There's talk of a survey conducted by a Chennai-based market research organisation, Economic Perspectives, commissioned by a major political party here. It's non-committal about TMC, except to say that they could have three against-the-odds wins, including Chidambaram's. If he makes it from Sivagangai the sixth time, it would be truly a feat though. Again, in the 2001 Assembly polls, this picture could change dramatically in TMC's favour. For now, however, it's DMK all the way, moving on to even a sensational sweep, in the truly Tamil fashion.
