An ex-Army man and now a seasoned election candidate, Maganbhai Solanki leaves crowds in awe with his moustaches wherever he goes. Solanki is an independent candidate contesting the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022 from Himatnagar constituency in Sabarkantha district.
One of the reasons why he is standing for the elections is to raise the demand for a maintenance allowance from the government to people who grow moustaches. “Whoever grows a moustache, the government should pay some amount for its maintenance,” Solanki was quoted as saying. Another issue he wants to raise is bringing about a law in the state that inspires Gujarat’s youth to grow moustaches.
The 57-year-old retired as an honorary lieutenant from the Army back in 2012. His electoral debut came in 2017 Gujarat Assembly Elections as a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate. He also fought in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections as an independent. Now once again, he is contesting as an independent in the ongoing Gujarat polls.
His nearly 5-feet-long moustache is a star attraction when he campaigns. He loves the attention it gets. People gather nearby amazed and children want to touch it. Solanki recalls that his moustache was also admired by many senior officers in the Army. He even claims that he got a special allowance to maintain his moustache when he was in the Army, where he was known as “moochwala”. He was inspired by his father as a child and had a long moustache when he joined the Army as a 19-year-old.
Solanki doesn’t have high hopes of winning the Himatnagar seat against the favourite, BJP’s Virendrasinh Zala. There are also Congress’ Kamleshbhai Patel and AAP’s Nirmalsinh Parmar ahead of him. However, he saws he will keep contesting till he wins an election. He credits his learnings in the Army behind the attitude to not give up “until the last bullet and the last drop of blood”.
The first time when I contested, I got 1,000 votes, the second time it was around 2,500 votes. This time I hope to improve my tally," he said. Apart from the moustache promises, another issue that Solanki prioritises is welfare of ex-service personnel. He says that soldiers have to retire because of policy changes “these days”. “Most of them are jobless after they retire at the age of 45-46. Earlier, the retired jawans would get re-employed in government offices... Now that has also stopped," he said.
READ | Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022: Know everything about it in only 5 points
(With inputs from PTI)
