  We revisit the problem of the structure and physical properties of
electrically charged static spherically symmetric solutions of the
Einstein-Maxwell system of equations where the matter model is a polytropic
gas. We consider a relativistic polytrope equation of state and take the
electric charge density to be proportional to the rest mass density. We
construct the families of solutions corresponding to various sets of parameters
and analyze their stability and compliance with the causality requirement, with
special emphasis on the possibility of constructing black hole mimickers.
Concretely, we want to test how much electric charge a given object can hold
and how compact it can be. We conclude that there is a microscopic bound on the
charge density to rest mass density ratio coincident with the macroscopic bound
regarding the extremal Reissner-Nordst\"om black hole. The macroscopic charge
to mass ratio for the object can exceed the corresponding microscopic ratio if
the object is non-extremal. Crucially, the only way to obtain a black hole
mimicker is by taking a subtle limit in which an electrically counterpoised
dust solution is obtained.
