Ex-Armyman sells Kargil for INLD in soldier land

This package is jazzed up by the presence of half-a-dozen retired officers in his entourage, led by an articulate Brigadier Pritam Singh. “It adds to my appeal becausethey have either worked with or known most of the ex-servicemen in the region,” Singh admits.

And there are quite a few former Armymen, besides their families, to be tapped here. In Singh’s own words, “There are 50,000 ex-servicemen and their families residing in Rohtak and Jhajjar. Add to this the family members of another 40,000 serving officers, and they become the most decisive factor in these elections. They would not think twice before giving me their vote and support. I have devoted 30 years of my life working for them.”

At the same time, Singh is not taking any chances. Dressed in a grey safari suit, he keeps a punishing schedule and barnstorms at least 10 to 12 villages on a mud-splattered Tata Sumo daily. He seems to clearly prefer street-corner meetings, where he tries to develop a rapport with his audience. But at the big public meetings, he takes a back-seat, watching quietly and letting his aggressive partymen hog the limelight. In fact, his soft and gentle ways do not seem to gell withthe loud and belligerent style of campaigning of most of his partymen. Last week, when Chautala was in Meham and Jhajjar to seek support for his candidate, Singh barely spoke for three to four minutes, paying tributes to the Kargil martyrs and extolling the virtues of Vajpayee.

So what made him join politics? “It was not an easy decision,” says the retired Captain, “because I had never thought about entering politics. When they asked, I could not resist it because a Jat never says no to a fight.” But the decision to take the plunge did not really go down well with his family — his wife found the move hard to believe. Singh says she asked him: “Aapko 65 ki umar mein ye kya ho gaya hai (What has happened to you at the age of 65)?” But apparently, everything is fine on the home front now. “I told her that it will give me a chance to serve more and more people,” he says by way of explanation.

The INLD strategists are gloating about the response he is getting. The party reportedly consideredhalf-a-dozen seasoned politicians before settling for the little-known fauji. Singh too is confident. “It is an electoral battle, everyone has his chances, ” he says. “You can’t count me out.”