Almost two dozen IAS and IPS officers are contesting the Lok Sabha elections this time. While several of them are retired, many have joined the fray by quitting their jobs. Former Central Home Minister R K Singh, too, is also contesting the elections from Ara constituency in Bihar on BJP ticket. From the Bihar cadre of the 1975 batch, IAS officer R K Singh’s most close competitor is Janta Dal (U)’s Meena Singh. But R K Singh and Meena Singh’s election campaign strategies are poles apart. While Mr R K Singh is playing the political role in a very gentlemanly manner and his packaged food and bottled water travel with him during his campaign tours and his speeches have an English accent, Meena is campaigning in pure Bihari style, and unlike Singh’s hi and hellos, she prefers to eat at anybody’s house, doesn’t forget to seek elders’ blessings by touching their feet. Where luck and the voters’ wave is concerned, Ara’s 90 per cent of Rajput voters are in favour of R K Singh and the BJP and Mr Singh seems to have an edge over his competitor.