Moustache man joins LS poll fray

He can easily dabble in a sermon on ‘How to train your moustache’ and with equal ease talk about tales of valour from Kargil war and Sri Lanka peacekeeping quite seamlessly. At his Subashnagar home in Himmatnagar town, retired armyman Magan Solanki, 53, is well known among locals as ‘Mooch Wale Dada’, his 2.5 feet long (one side) moustache does the talking. But this year, he is fighting an election for the Sabarkantha

Lok Sabha

seat and is pitted against BJP’s Dipsinh Rathod and Congress’s Rajendrasinh Thakor.



"I had asked the collector if there was a moustache as an election symbol, but he gave me the farmer’s tractor. I was happy as both a soldier and a farmer are inseparable from their motherland." Solanki spends at least one hour and 15 minutes twirling and setting his moustache every day.

Hiswife Manjula has served the BJP for over quarter of a century as a faithful worker. But this year, she has turned down her party’s request for campaigning. "When my Sahib stands for an election how can you expect me or my five children to oppose him?" asks Manjulaben.

Solanki has served the

Rashtriya Rifles

for 28 years and has been posted to Kargil, Pulwama, Sri Lanka and

Sikkim

before he retired as a

Subedar

. "We were given a special allowance in the army to take care of our moustaches. I had cornered many awards in the army because of my moustache," says Solanki.

When asked why he has joined the poll fray, Solanki says, "Unemployment, education for all, salaries to daily wagers according to government rates, farmers’ distress and water are the major issues for which I am fighting the elections."

He adds, "Unlike politicians, people from the army do what he or she says. I don’t like how politicians have begun dragging the armed forces into their political rhetoric."