THERE are no Indira Gandhis in 1996. But in a male-dominated polity, there are still women who want to try their luck at the ballot box. In the south, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha is on a dawn-to-midnight crusade through the heat and dust to revive her AIADMK. In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh Lakshmi Parvathi, NTR's widow, is braving it out in the countryside, staking claim to her husband's legacy. In Uttar Pradesh, along with Mayawati battling on with the support of her mentor-in-chief, Kanshi Ram, you have the maverick bandit queen, Phoolan Devi. And in Madhya Pradesh the firebrand sanyasin, Uma Bharati, is inspiring passions as usual. Add to this the melodramatics of Mamata Banerjee and it is evident that these women are more than aware that histrionics are an intrinsic part of a politician's craft.