Leader of Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, Perumal was whisked off from Trincomalee in a Research & Analysis Wing chartered-plane in March '90 after the collapse of Lanka's only experiment with devolution of power in its embattled North-East.

In India, Perumal who is under threat from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), first stayed in the high-security Chanderi Fort in Madhya Pradesh and was later shifted to Ajmer where he lived in a tightly-guarded Civil Lines bungalow as a guest of the Indian Government for nearly nine years. Last week, Perumal broke out of his Najibullah-like existence in India, but because he has not officially announced his arrival yet, it is still not clear why he hasreturned so suddenly and if there is any significance to the timing of his return.

It is also not known whether he has got the assurances he wanted from the Sri Lankan Government for his protection to enable him to plunge into politics here. Hours before he fled Sri Lanka in 1990, Perumal, who was then chief minister of the North-Eastern Provincial Government elected in 1989 under the auspices of the Rajiv Gandhi Government, had declared the North-East as an independent state of Eelam.

Perumal's ``unilateral declaration of independence'' was not just a show of defiance against Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was doing his best to scuttle the functioning of the north-eastern provincial council, but also against the National Front-led Indian Government which gave him no support in his battle against the Lankan Government and withdrew the Indian Peace-Keeping Force -- under whose protection he ran his government -- from the island.

The government seemed to know of his arrival because theyhad arranged for protection, but he took even senior members of his party by surprise. For a few days, the EPRLF even officially denied their leader was back in the country. Now, the official line is: ``No comment''. One theory for his return is that Perumal, tired of his self-imposed incarceration, is a politician in search of a role. A source close to him said he now believes he can succeed where the India and UK failed, in forging a consensus between the two main Lankan parties on the question of devolution of power to the North-East.

It is not known whether the UNP will accept him as a mediator or even if his initiative has the blessings of the government. So far, he has not been able to meet Kumaratunga, but is said to have been promised a meeting after this week's election. Tamil politicians and newspapers have been churning out not-so-charitable theories for his sudden comeback. One is that the Indian Government is tired of its responsibility for his security. The other is that he succumbed to thepromise of office held out by President Kumaratunga on her recent visit there. There is some hope, especially amongst foreign diplomats, that the return may be the launching pad for the formation of a broad anti-LTTE front. Some of these ex-militants, now members of Parliament, say he will not make an iota of difference to the prevailing situation. For Perumal, the biggest problem to his political career remains the threat from the LTTE.

Three years ago, in an interview to this writer in Ajmer, he had declared: ``One day I will walk in the streets of Jaffna like a normal politician. But Prabhakaran will never be able to do that.'' But that day could still be far away.